Aflame
by Jknotdeadlol
Summary: 6 months after the Merge, Star and Marco are finally together. But when an unfamiliar enemy appears and threatens everything, they'll have to face a final test together to make sure the conjoined world they brought together isn't consumed by flames.
1. Chapter 1: The early morning

**Aflame**

**Chapter 1**

**The early morning**

Smoke.

Something was burning.

At least, that's what it smelled like.

Star didn't even open her eyes. She didn't want to get out of her bed. It was too late, she was too tired, and she honestly couldn't be bothered to get up. She tried to call out to Marco to check it out.

Star and Marco had been sleeping together for several months now. (No, not like that.) But they had been sharing a bed together. After the merging of the two worlds, they started their relationship together. Everything seemed awesome. Their parents had given them their blessings, and they had gone on countless dates together, and it all seemed like a pleasant dream that Star wished would never end.

"Mmm…" She groaned sleepily. "Marco. I think something is burning. Go check it out."

She received no answer. Either he didn't hear her, or he was still asleep. She turned over to face him.

"Marco, did you hear me? I think that-"

She stopped cold. Marco wasn't there at all. In fact, neither was her bed or the Diaz's house. She was in the middle of a road. She recognized it. It was in the middle of Echo creek. Specifically the part where the main Earth and Mewni parts of the towns were situated in.

But it didn't look like the middle of the town. Nobody else was in sight, and all the lights from the numerous buildings and shops were out. No cars were being driven, no items were being sold, the entire town just seemed...dead.

Star immediately got up off the ground and looked back and forth at her surroundings, telling herself in her head that it wasn't real.

"Okay." Star said to herself. "I remember going to bed. This is just a dream. One of those weird ones where you know you're in a dream. I just have to wake up. Just have to do something like...this!" She immediately pinched her left arm as hard as she could. But she didn't wake up. In fact, she didn't even feel any pain. She wasn't sure if she actually felt anything at all. It was as if her entire arm had gone numb.

"Okay." Star said. "That...didn't work. Guess I should try and find somebody." She started walking down the street. With no light, it was slightly hard to see anything distinctly. But she did see that the whole town was just like the part she woke up in: dead and abandoned.

"HELLO?" She called out, hoping someone would hear. But there was no answer. No sound, other than the sound of her footsteps and breathing. It was so silent that Star thought she could hear a pin drop from a mile away.

"Wish I had some light…" She muttered.

In an instant, her request was granted. She could see a small orange light in the distance. It seemed as small as the light from a candle, but with it being the only source of light, Star could see it easier than spotting Marco in a crowd. She ran towards it as fast as she could. Part of her was worried that it would disappear for some reason, but it didn't. It stayed where it was. A single light in the darkness.

She finally reached it. As she got closer, she realized what it was. A small rock. Glowing orange. She bent down and picked it up, inspecting it. She then noticed some writing written on the bottom.

'I hope it was worth it.'

"What?" Star said aloud. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Before she could contemplated the rock's message any further, it suddenly got warmer. Then warmer. Then in an instant, it felt like the rock was made of hot coals.

This time she felt the pain. She immediately let go of the rock and threw it to the ground. "Oww!" She cried out in pain. She looked at her hand, and there were several small burn marks from the heat.

She looked back down at the rock. Suspiciously, it's physical appearance hadn't changed in the slightest.

"What in Mewni's name was that all about?" She asked herself. How could she even feel that? She was sure that it was still a dream, but she was sure that she wasn't supposed to be able to feel pain in dreams. But somehow, she felt that.

She inched her foot forward and slightly kicked the rock, hoping for some kind of response. But instead of only moving a few inches, the rock didn't seem to be held back by any kind of physics, and kept sliding away into the darkness.

"Hey! Come back!" She yelled, expecting it to obey her commands for some reason.

But it didn't. Eventually, it got far away enough that Star couldn't even see the light coming from it anymore. Once again, she was alone in the darkness of the town.

"Urg!" She cried in frustration. "Can somebody please give me some kind of light? One that doesn't slide away?"

Just like last time, her prayers were answered. But it was different. The entire area, the buildings, cars, even the ground itself seemed to light up.

Star immediately covered her eyes to shield them from the sudden explosion of brightness. She slowly opened them, letting her eyes adjust to it. Once she did, she could see why it seemed like everything had lit up.

It was burning. All of it. Every square inch of every single object was covered in flames, and they were all slowly burning.

Star slowly looked around at the horrible scene, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. Even the things that weren't flammable were on fire. Stone, concrete and metal were all covered in fire as if they had been coated in gasoline.

It all started to suffer. The metal started looking drippy, as if it was melting, even though the fire shouldn't have been hot enough to melt it. The brick and stone buildings started crumbling away, burning as if they were made of paper.

Star wasn't affected by any of it. For some reason, the only thing that wasn't on fire was herself and a small part of the ground that surrounded her. As if someone or something was protecting her.

Star then heard a loud cracking sound, as if someone struck a wall with a sledge hammer. She turned around to the source of the sound. It was the Butterfly castle. She watched in horror as the main tower started to lean to the side, and then fell over completely. It crashed into a section of the town, taking out an entire block in a huge explosion of fire and stone.

Everything else in the town was suffering similar fates. All the cars and vehicles had been turned into piles of molten metal, scorching the ground beneath them. The monster temple was starting to collapse, one section of it at a time. The final part of it fell over, and then it was no more.

After that, it almost seemed to die down. Everything that could be burned was already destroyed. There was nothing left now. The flames had consumed it all.

Then it stopped. As quickly as it had started, the fires disappeared. It was dark again. Hundreds of bits of ash and embers fell from the sky, looking almost like some kind of snowstorm. Star didn't move. She was still in shock at what she had seen. It had all seemed so real, but at the same time, she knew it couldn't be real.

Could it?

Suddenly, a voice rang out. Powerful, deep, unknown. She had never heard it before. It simply said one thing: the same phrase that she had seen on the rock.

"I hope it was worth it."

Then, it faded. The falling ash, what remained of the town, the ground. Everything slowly vanished. She was soon standing on nothing, on blackness.

And she saw nothing.

The she heard another voice. But this one she recognized. This one was the best sound in the world.

"Star? Are you okay?" That was Marco's voice!

"Marco? Is that you?" She cried out.

"Uhhh…yeah." He said, sounding slightly confused.

"I can't see anything! Where are you? I only see darkness!"

"That's probably because you have your eyes closed."

Star paused to take this in. "What?"

"Try and open your eyes Star."

Star blinked.

Suddenly, she was back. In her bed. In her room. It was all back. She looked around. Marco was next to her, still in his pajamas, she was still in her nightgown, and nothing was on fire. Small amounts of sunlight were coming in through the window, proving that it was now morning. All seemed right in the world.

"Sooo…" Marco said. "Did you have a bad dream or something-" She immediately lunged at him and hugged him, letting her head fall to his chest.

"Um, Star, what are you doing?"

"Shhh…" She said. "Just give me a minute."

"Uh, okay."

Star laid still and listened to Marco's heartbeat. This always seemed to calm her down; she needed it after that nightmare she had. She could still remember everything about it. The castle falling, the town in flames, the rock that burned her hand-

Another thought came to her mind. She let go of Marco and looked at the hand that the rock had burned. But there was no mark, no sign of any burns whatsoever. It really had been just a dream.

Hopefully…

"Hey." Marco said, in a concerned tone.

Star looked over at him.

"I'm not going to probe you for information about what that was all about, so I'm just going to assume you had a nightmare. I'm going to get dressed, because it's Thursday, and you know what that means."

'Oh. Right.' Star thought. She suddenly remembered that it was Thursday, and every Thursday, she and Marco went to breakfast at the most popular diner in Echo Creek. As early as they could. Before anyone else woke up. Mostly because of the long lines that occurred later in the day.

Marco got up off her bed, stretched, and walked out of the room.

Star sighed to herself. How did she get so lucky? The summer so far had been amazing. They had spent almost every waking moment together. Hanging out together, walking around Echo Creek, checking out all the shops, or just plain enjoying each other's presence. It was perfect.

Star got out of her bed and stretched as well, then undressed and put on her favorite dark green short-sleeved dress, then went downstairs to wait for Marco. When he arrived, in his typical red hoodie attire, they both left the house and went for the breakfast place. Only a few other people were roaming the streets.

Star breathed in the morning air and the sights around her. It was tranquil. The merge of Echo Creek and Mewni had created something so new, so different, yet at the same time something beautiful.

To make matters even better, everybody adapted rather quickly. Sure, a few monsters and Mewmans still claimed that magic existed anytime they saw a piece of Earth technology, and most of the humans in the town still were usually uneasy around some of the...bigger things that Mewni had brought with it. But everyone seemed to get along. Mostly. After Eclipsa was made Queen again, she had fixed up relations between the monsters and Mewmans quite nicely.

Star could remember the second time Eclipsa got crowned. The first time had been somewhat of a disaster, with Globgor escaping and everyone freaking out. But the second time, everything worked out fine. But Star could still remember her mother's face. Even though Moon had willingly said that she wouldn't be ruler after the disaster she caused with the Solarian warriors, Star could tell that she still wasn't happy at Eclipsa being queen.

But now, Moon was rarely seen in public. She and River had retired to a house at the edge of town, far away from everybody else. Star visited them regularly, but she could tell that Moon just wanted to be left alone. For now. Star hoped that one day she would come back and they could be one big happy family again.

Star squeezed Marco's hand and shook off the depressing thoughts. She didn't need to worry about those things now. Besides, in the time it took her to think about all that, they had made it to the diner. They both entered and seated themselves, as per usual. Only a few other people were there, and there was a television in the corner of the room displaying random local news. Something about fire hydrants and how a few Mewmans were scared of the "magic water pumps." The news must have been slow that day.

A waiter came up to them. "The usual, you two?" He asked.

Star smiled. They had come here so many times that all the waiters knew what they were going to order, and it was very convenient for everyone involved.

"Yep!" Star said happily. "Thanks Joe!"

"It's Jeremy." The waiter said, writing the "usual" down on his notepad and walking away.

"You know Star," Marco said. "You should really learn to remember things better. Do you even remember what we're doing later today?"

"Uhh…" She said. "We're...going to the movies?" She guessed, hoping she was right.

Marco sighed and smiled. "No Star, we're going to see Eclipsa later today. She wanted us to come over and have dinner with her. Sort of a get together thing."

"Oh, right." Star said. "Well, with everything going on this summer, its normal that I forget things every once in awhile!"

Marco laughed. "Star, the only thing we've been doing this summer is hanging out together and just doing things around Echo Creek, We haven't actually had that much to do."

"Okay." Star said in defeat. "You got me Marco. I forgot. But I was busy thinking about that nightmare that I had."

"You mean earlier when you thought you couldn't see?"

"No." Star replied. "Well, actually, yes. But that wasn't part of the nightmare I was thinking about. That was only the end of it. It was what happened before that freaked me out."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, Star." Marco said. "We all have nightmares, and it's common to not want to talk about them."

"It's fine." Star said. "I know you want to know."

"Yeah." Marco replied. "I do."

"Knew it." Star smiled and took a deep breath. "It was the town. But it was different...dark and empty. There were no lights, and no people. And it was one of those dreams where you know its a dream, but you can't wake up. So I started walking around a bit, and I found a rock. A weird, glowing rock. I picked it up, but it burned me. Like, I actually felt the pain. Even though it was just a dream."

Star looked at her hand. "I can still feel that burn just by thinking about it."

Marco interrupted her. "Wait, you actually felt it? Are you sure it wasn't just a dream?"

"I really don't know." Star said. "It was so real, so vivid. Especially with what happened next. I threw the rock on the ground and kicked it, but it slid way, like it wasn't being held back by anything. Eventually, it slid out of view, and I got angry and asked for light."

Star took another deep breath. Marco noticed that this dream must have affected her much more than she let on.

"You don't have to keep going if its too much for you-"

"No." Star interrupted. "It's fine. If you want to know, then I'll tell you. So, the next thing I know, the entire town is on fire. And I mean everything. The buildings, the cars, even the ground. And it all seemed to be destroyed so fast. All the buildings crumbled like nothing, all the cars and other metal things melted like candles, and soon I was all that was left. And when it was all gone, I heard a voice. It said, 'I hope it was worth it.' Come to think of it, that same message was written on the bottom of that rock as well. I think somebody was trying to tell me something. But, um, after that, it all went dark. I couldn't see, and then I heard you, and you know what happened next."

Marco stared at her wide-eyed. "That...sounds pretty intense." He said.

"Argh! It was. And even though I knew it was a dream, it all felt so real. I felt like I was actually there. It was just...so real, Marco."

"Hey." He said. "It's okay. What happened in that nightmare obviously isn't happening now, and dreams can be weird. They tell you weird things that usually don't ever mean anything."

She smiled. "Thanks. I guess I feel a little better."

"That's the spirit." Marco said. "Now cheer up, I think our breakfast is here."

Right on cue, Jeremy arrived carrying two plates, one filled with normal pancakes, and the other one with pancakes but with an insane amount of whipped cream and other various food items.

He set the plates down. "Here you are. Enjoy your breakfast. Is there anything else I can get for you?"

"We're good Joe!" Star said.

Jeremy simply sighed and walked off, not bothering to correct her. Besides, she would probably forget it anyways.

Both of them picked up their utensils and started eating. After Star quickly ate a particularly large piece, she asked Marco a question. "So, why does Eclipsa want to see us again?"

Marco swallowed what was in his mouth and replied back to her. "She thought it would be fun. Sort of a meet-up, you know? We can catch up, see how everybody's doing, and just talk with her. And she probably needs a break too. Even though the leadership in this town is now a duumvirate, with her and the mayor splitting the priorities, she still has a lot of work to do. This is probably an excuse to get away from the ruling life for a while. It was probably hard enough back on Mewni; imagine how it is now."

"Yeah." Star said. "I wasn't queen for that long at all, and by the end of every hour, I was exhausted. But people just kept coming to me for solutions to problems. What do we do about Meteora? What's the battle plan? What do you want for dinner tonight? I can't imagine what it's like to do that full time."

"Well, you might have to learn soon." Marco said. "With you probably being the future queen and all."

"Mmm...I think I'll leave all the decision making to you." She said with a smile.

Marco smiled back at her. "Oh, are you going to marry me and make me king?"

"What do you think?"

Both of the teens started at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing, knowing they were getting a bit ahead of themselves. They liked to joke with each other about that sort of stuff.

"But seriously…" Marco said. "I'm sure you'll make a great ruler. Once you get your heart into it."

"You know where my heart's at Marco." She winked at him.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything…" A sudden voice said. It was Jeremy, with the bill in his hand. He set it on the table. "20 dollars."

Marco pulled out his wallet and got out a twenty, then a five for a tip. Jeremy took the money and walked away. "See you two next week."

"See you then, Joe!" Star said.

"It's...forget it." Jeremy then disappeared into the diner's kitchen.

Star then pushed her now empty plate away from her and got up out of her chair. "You ready to go to the monster temple?"

Marco laughed. "Star, we're meeting her in the evening. It's still the morning. I doubt my parents or even half the town is awake yet."

"Well, then let's go find something to do."

"Alright."

With that, they practically ran out of the diner together, so fast that they didn't even notice that one of the few people sitting near them was watching them. Jeremy walked over to the figure."

"Hello sir, can I please take your order?" He asked.

"Three eggs. Over easy." He replied coldly. "And make sure to burn them. Cook them for a while."

"Burn them?"

"Yeah."

"Okaayyy…" Jeremy said, writing everything down and walking off in confusion at the odd order.

The unknown figure then looked out the diner's window at the two teens running down the street.

"Enjoy it while it lasts, little Butterfly. Enjoy it while it lasts…"

**End Chapter 1**

**A/N: Well, that's the first chapter to this story. I hope it was a good starter, and sets the stage for what might happen in the future. Please leave a review letting me know what you thought about it, or if there's anything I should change or not**

**Thank you.**


	2. Chapter 2: The stranger

**Aflame**

**Chapter 2**

**The stranger **

Deep within the bowels of Echo creek, there lay a hidden place. A dark place. The kind of place that children dare each other to go near on Halloween. A place that was filled with bad memories and seemingly endless horrors that no one wanted to remember.

The old abandoned DMV.

Located on the edge of town, it was a good distance away from any other buildings. At least, buildings that were still used. After the merge, some buildings in Echo creek were deemed "unsafe" due to the damage that they sustained from things that Mewni had brought with it, and thus were abandoned because it was too expensive and dangerous to tear them down at that time.

But even when the town had gotten enough money from tourism to finally rid itself of those structures, they stayed there. Perhaps some kind of reminder? Or maybe nobody remembered that they were there. But they stayed empty. Alone. They seemed like the perfect hiding spot for criminals. Or a good place to hold a secret meeting.

Which was exactly what was happening inside the DMV.

"Fellow Mewmans and company!" A voice cried out from within it. "Monsters and Eclipsa have _ruined_ us! They have been invading our homes! Taking our land! The town is now ruled by two people, both of whom support them. Well, I say no more! It's time we take back Mewni!"

This voice was met with several cheers and cries of approval. If one walked into the DMV, they would see a troubling sight: Mina loveberry surrounded by over two dozen loyal followers.

Mina had never learned her lesson. After the merge and loss of magic, she had brought together a group of people who wanted Mewni (Or "Earthni" as it was now called) to go back to it's "rightful" rulers. The Mewmans. Surrounding her were several Mewmans, and some humans as well, who she had convinced to join her after telling them that the monsters were ravenous and bloodthirsty.

"But I have a plan!" She continued. "We will take something that matters most to them! Something that they can't and won't ignore. In exchange for it's return, the monsters will have to leave this town forever, and be forced to fend for themselves."

Once again, cheers were heard from around the room from all the people who blindly followed a vision that would never come to pass.

"Uh...wait." A voice said. It was one of the Mewmans, looking rather confused at Mina's statement.

"What is it Doug-Doug?" Mina asked him.

"What are we going to steal?" He asked.

Mina smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It's simple. We're going to steal the abomination that is the queens half-Mewman half-monster daughter!"

Several gasps were heard from around the room at the bold statement, followed by murmuring. The murmurs varies, from some saying that it was going too far, to others saying that it was the best plan they had heard all year.

Mina continued talking, and everybody fell silent. "That's right my fellow Mewni patriots, we're going to steal that baby, and in return for her...return, all our demands will be met!"

"But...what if they don't agree to our demands?" Doug-Doug asked.

Mina suddenly got a bloodthirsty look in her eyes. If anybody had looked straight into them, they would say she was insane. (Not _in_accurate) "If they don't agree to our demands…" she said. "Then we're going to kill Eclipsa's child! It will show them that we're not messing around! That we will not sway from doing anything in order to make a perfect Mewni!"

The end result of this statement resulted in a sudden flurry of words from the members in the room. Many were saying that it was going way too far, and even Mina's most loyal followers seemed rather uneased by what she had just said.

Hearing the disagreement coming from her followers, Mina shouted at them to get them to stop.

"COWARDS!" She screamed at them. Instantly the room once again fell silent, and all eyes were upon her.

"I've seen braver people at political debates than in this room!" She said. "If you don't want to go along with my plan, then you can be a traitor to Mewni and leave!"

Everybody stared at her.

"It's not that we're afraid to do it…" One person said. "It's that we think it's going too far. I mean, killing one of those filthy monsters is one thing, but killing a _baby_?! That's going too far."

Mina scoffed at this statement. "Too far? You think that's too far? I remember the days when I was a Solarian warrior, the greatest soldiers Mewni ever had, and I can recall every single thing I did. I killed monsters by the dozens! Not just the strong ones either! In the name of my great queen Solaria, I killed those monsters children as well! So that they would never grow up and become a threat to Mewni! I don't regret it one bit. Those monsters are savage animals, creatures unfit to be alive, and to kill them is to do a great deed for the world!

But Eclipsa's little monster-Mewman baby? That thing sickens me to my core. It's very existence is a sin of the highest magnitude! If my informant hadn't told me not to, I would have already stormed the monster castle and slit its throat! I have no regrets for anything. Monsters are a virus, a disease upon this world, and I, and _we, _are the cure that will wipe them out of existence!"

Everybody stayed silent, stunned at the ferocity and the power behind Mina's words. If a normal person was in that room at that time, they would have just walked right out.

But these people didn't.

Instead they nodded. They _agreed _with the poison that had come out of Mina's mouth.

"She's right!" One person said. "We have to protect this world, no matter the cost!"

"She right about the monsters as well!" Said another. "We don't have to feel bad for killing them. They aren't _us_ after all. They're just filth. The one thing that's stopping this world from reaching its full potential!"

And so they conversed with one another. Each opinion was worse than the last, all spouting praise for Mina's words. Mina herself simply smiled. Her followers completely believed her, and now, it was time to set her plan into action.

"Manfred!" She said.

Manfred, who had been present since the beginning and was Mina's oldest follower on this new world, walked over to her. "Yes ma'am?"

Mina took a square-shaped, black device out of her pocket and gave it to him. "Contact the stranger." She said. "Tell him that my plan will soon come into action."

Manfred paused. "Can I speak my mind ma'am?"

"Of course. What is it, my faithful servant?"

Manfred took a deep breath. "I'm worried about this "stanger", as you call him. Every piece of information that you need you get from him, but I'm starting to get worried that we shouldn't trust him."

"Why is that?" Mina asked.

"He refuses to show himself to us, he always disagrees with our plans, saying we should do his, and we don't even know his name. If I was too have an informant, I would want it to be somebody we trusted. Somebody we knew."

"That's fascinating Manfred." Mina said, obviously not having heard a word of what he said after "he." "Now, do what I told you! It's time to enact this plan and end this meeting."

Manfred sighed. "Yes ma'am." He walked off.

"Good. Now, everybody!" Mina said, getting the rooms attention. "It is time. Now, I told my informant my plan a while earlier, and he said the best time to take that baby will be later today. Apparently she's going over to the house of the princesses little boyfriend while her mommy and daddy have dinner with some guests! It will be the perfect time to strike! At 7:00 tonight, we will go to that house and take the baby. We will leave our note that explains our demands, and we will wait for their response."

The room filled with nods of approval at this plan.

"Now," Mina said. "Everybody drink the official daily end meeting drink and come back later tonight."

Everybody did so, (the drink was a mix between liquified corn and Mewnian ale) and left. Mina watched them leave.

"Nothing can stop me now." She said to herself. "Soon, this whole world will be a monster-free paradise, and we will show no mercy to anybody that does not follow the rules of this paradise."

**Several hours later…**

"Come on Star!"

"Give me a minute! I'm picking out the right clothes."

"Star, Eclipsa said that we can wear our normal clothes. We're not going to a fancy restaurant. It's just a friendly dinner with Eclipsa and Globgor."

It had already been a half hour. Star and Marco were getting ready to have dinner with Eclipsa, and as usual, Star was taking a little more time than needed to pick out an outfit. Marco was still waiting downstairs for her, while Star was still upstairs picking something out.

"Okay!" She said. "I think I'm ready!"

"Finally." Marco muttered. "Every evening with this."

Marco heard Star coming downstairs, and got up from the chair he was sitting on, praying that Star didn't change her mind at the last minute.

"How do I looked Marco?" She asked.

Marco stared at her dumbfounded. "Star, that's-that's the same outfit you've been wearing all day. You didn't change your outfit at all."

Her face dropped. "Oh...do you think I should try and find another outfit?"

"NO!" Marco said. "No, that's great! It's great. No need to change anymore. You looked adorable."

Star smiled at him. "Awwww. Thanks Marco. You looked great too. Now come on, let's go!"

They both headed to the door, but when they opened it, someone was already standing on the other side.

It was Janna. Carrying baby Meteora with her. Over all, an odd sight.

"Oh hey Janna!" Star said cheerfully. "Here to drop off Meteora?"

"Yeah." Janna said. "Guess I'm on babysitter duty, due to the fact that Marco's folks are out tonight as well."

"They're visiting my mom and dad." Star said. "Something about royalty."

"Well, now that you two are together, they're gonna have to make the Diazes an official royal family." Janna said. "Can't have the princess marrying a commoner. What with tradition and all that."

"I suppose. I wonder if there's going to be a ceremony." Marco said.

"Eh, I'm sure there will be. A small one yes, but there will be one."

"I'll be looking forward to it." Marco said. "But we have to go now."

"Right, right." Janna said, walking past them into the house. "Well, have fun with Eclipsa you two. I'll text Marco if anything happens here. And make sure to tell me everything that happens.

"We will." Star said.

"Great. Now if you'll excuse me…" Janna held up Marcos wallet. "I'm gonna pass the time by looking through this little thing."

Marco stared at his wallet in shock and checked his pockets. "How- How did you even-"

"See ya!" Janna said, shutting the door.

"Okay, no." Marco said, who started walking back towards the door before Star grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Come on." She said. "She's already done that a million times and you know it. There's nothing in that wallet right now that she hasn't seen before."

Marco looked at Star and sighed in defeat. "...Fair point." He said.

With all that taken care of, the two set off towards the monster temple, unaware of the several pairs of eyes watching them leave.

"Alright." One of the nearby bushes said. "The two brats have left. Now we make our move."

**A short walk later…**

Star and Marco strode to the monster temple, as fast as they could. Marco could tell they were already late without even having to check the time, due to several distractions that they had run into while getting here.

It towered above everything else in the area. The store, the houses, even a few low-lying clouds.

"Never gets old." Star said. "I could almost call this place a third home."

"Yeah…" Marco said, remembering the time that they had lived here. Before the Butterfly castle was finally repaired after the merge, they had both lived at the monster temple. But then Star moved back into the Diazes to be closer to Marco. Also to enjoy a regular life before she became queen.

They both walked into the temple, and an audience of Eclipsa, Globgor, and her monster butler Archibald were there to greet them.

"Hey Eclipsa!" Star said.

Eclipsa waved at them. "Hello, Star. Hello Marco. It's good to see you both again." She said. "How have you both been?"

"We've been great! How have you and Globgor been?"

"We've been fine as well. We have been rather busy lately, what with all the meetings we've had with the mayor and a few problems with some...protesters. But other than that, everything has been just great. Come in, we made sure to prepare a special feast for our get together."

"Is it mostly corn?" Marco asked.

Eclipsa nodded and started walking away, motioning for the others to follow her, which they did. "Well, you know, we do have a bit of an oversupply at the moment. When we asked the state government for corn when our supplies were getting low, we didn't quite expect to get so...much. It was honestly more food than any person in the kingdom had ever seen. So we've been eating more corn than usual lately so we have space in the stores for the corn that we regularly grow."

"That's so great." Star said. "How is you relationship with the government anyway?"

Globgor suddenly chimed in. "It's okay. The humans seem to recognize the mayor's authority more than ours, as monarchies apparently aren't very common anymore, and the one that the left don't have much power. All the power is in something called the parliament. At least, that's what I've been told. But they have been supportive of us. They recognized our plight and helped us out. I'm pretty sure that they want us to stay in Echo creek for the time being."

"Well, at least everything else is going well." Star said. "I mean, it is, right?"

"Oh yes." Eclipsa said. "After that monster-Mewman-human get together we had at the town's community center, everybody seems to trust one another much more. Oh, and here we are…"

Everybody entered the large room that Globgor had once been imprisoned in. The broken crystal was still there, but other than that, the whole room seemed to have been cleaned up nicely. There was a large wooden table with several plates already laid out. The plates seemed to be mostly corn, as Marco had suspected and Eclipsa had confined, although there did appear to be a few other random items as well. Everybody took a seat.

"Anything else you need ma'am?" Archibald asked.

"No thank you Archibald." Eclipsa responded. "I'll call you if we need anything."

"Very good." Archibald said. With that, he flew off.

"Hmm. I like him a lot better than Manfred. He seems nicer." Star said.

"Quite." Eclipsa said. "Although we are still searching for Manfred at the moment. As well as...Mina."

A heavy silence came upon the table. Mina was not mentioned much, as everybody wanted to forget her. But try as they may, they all knew she was still out there somewhere, possibly gaining new followers for her anti-monster gang. But they didn't have to worry about that now.

"Well." Eclipsa said, hoping to divert the topic from Mina. "Everybody dig in." So everybody did.

Five minutes into the dinner, Globgor spoke up. "It's a shame your parents couldn't be with us tonight Star. I was hoping for them to come. Maybe bury the hatchet after so long."

"Yeah, well you know." Star said. "They're meeting with Marcos parents, and besides, even if they weren't, they probably wouldn't come. Well, my dad might, but my mom wouldn't."

Eclipsa nodded. "How is Moon anyway? When did you last see her?"

"A week ago." Star responded. "She seems the same. I hope she doesn't avoid everybody forever. I can't remember the last time she showed herself in public. I feel like she's afraid that people are going to attack her if she shows herself because of what she did."

"They're not going to do that." Marco said. "Sure, your mom might be a little unpopular now, but she's not _that _unpopular. I actually think that some people want to see her again too. I bet the monarchs of the other kingdoms want to see her again as well. Don't they? Eclipsa, have the other kingdoms mentioned Moon?"

Eclipsa laughed. "Don't even get me started with them Marco. The other kingdoms aren't particularly fond of me right now either. Due to the fact that me and the mayor were appointed as the rulers of the town by the state, the other kingdoms are slightly mad that they weren't included at all. Which sadly, they technically aren't. They don't have any real power now. They only have power on their own people, unlike before, when they had control over sections of Mewni. But now that parts of their kingdoms have spilled into parts of Earth, they lost the power they had in those parts. It was given to me and the mayor. You should have seen their reactions at the meeting when the governor of the state told them that."

"I was there for that." Star said. "I'm honestly surprised they didn't attack him."

"Well, he did have several armed guards with him. I have no doubt that he's never coming back here."

Everybody laughed. "You know…" Marco said.

"It's nice that it worked out in the end."

A sudden ding was heard.

"What was that?" Eclipsa asked.

"Oh, that was my phone. Janna must have texted me. Hope I didn't just jinx us." He said with a laugh.

Marco quickly pulled out his phone and looked at his messages. His smiled quickly faded.

Star noticed this. "Is something wrong?" She asked.

"Yes." Marco said with wide eyes. "Janna told me to call the police. She said that she thinks someone is trying to break into the house, and the power is dead for some reason."

Everybody looked at each other.

"Oh my god! The babies are there!" Eclipsa said.

"We have to go now." Star said frantically. "Marco call the police, we're leaving."

"Right." Marco said, quickly dialing them.

"Good." Star said. "Now come on. We're going back to the house. If somebody's trying to break, then I'm not going to stand around and wait."

Star quickly ran out of the temple, follows by Marco who was explained everything to the police on his phone, both of them running as fast as they could.

Eclipsa looked at Globgor. "Well, let's go then!" She said. Globgor nodded and the two of them ran after Star and Marco.

What followed was a mad dash through Echo creek. Practically pushing people out of the way, all four of them basically sprinted to the Diazes house. Finally, they arrived.

But it seems to be too late. The door was broken in, and most of the windows were shattered. It looked like if every part of the house had been broken into at the same time.

Star gasped at the sight, but Marco quickly ran inside.

"Janna!" He said. "Are you here? Where are- where…" He suddenly stopped cold and noticed the rest of the house. It was a mess. Most of the furniture was destroyed, and it looked like a full out brawl had occured in every room. Everybody looked around, searching for someone anyone. Eclipsa ran upstairs, no doubt looking for the babies.

Then they spotted a hand coming from underneath a fallen bookcase.

"Oh my god!" Star screamed. "JANNA!" She rushed over. "Globgor, help me get his thing off her!"

Globgor stepped over to the bookcase and lifted it like it was nothing, tossing it aside. They were met with a grisly sight. Janna was underneath it, unconscious and drenched in blood with several noticeable wounds on her.

Star stepped back. "Is she-is she…"

Marco kneeled down and put his fingers on her neck, his hand shaking. "She has a pulse. She's alive." He said. "But barely. We have to get her to a hospital now."

Right on schedule, several sirens could be heard coming from down the street. Eclipsa suddenly came back down the stairs, her face pale.

"I can't find them." She said.

"What are you-"

"They took them. They took Meteora and Mariposa."

**End chapter 2**

**A/N: Well, that a fun little chapter, right? Janna's fine by the way. She's not dead. But Mina and her gang sure don't show mercy to people they see as traitors.**

**Also, Mina will not be the main antagonist of this story. Not even close. She's small fry compared to what will eventually happen.**

**See you next time.**


	3. Chapter 3: A normal life

**Aflame**

**Chapter 3**

**A normal life **

"How is she? Please tell me she's okay."

"She's stable...for now."

"Oh my god. What, what exactly did they do to her?"

"I'm not sure if I'm allowed to-"

"I don't care. Tell me."

It was bad. Everything was bad. Meteora and Mariposa were missing, courtesy of Mina, who had just kidnapped them. Janna was hospitalized, as she was barely alive when they made it to the Diazes residence. Nothing good was happening now.

The doctor Star was talking too sighed. "I can't tell you. I don't have the patients permissions to-"

Star narrowed her eyes. She was in no mood for anybody to say no to her at the moment. Not after what had just happened. "TELL ME!" She yelled. She couldn't just ignore this. Janna was one of her best friends, and she needed to know if she was going to be okay.

The doctor flinched away at Star's outburst. "Ummm...security?" He said. "Somebody?"

Marco walked over to Star and grabbed her arm.

"Hey Star." He said nervously. "Come on. Let's go back down to the hospitals lobby. There's some people waiting for us."

"How can you be so calm?!" She asked him, incredulous. "I'm not surprised you're not freaking out!"

"More than you know…" He muttered. "But I spent 16 years in the neverzone Star. I've trained myself to keep calm even under the most stressful situations."

A lie, of course. Inside, he was freaking out more than he ever had been. He just wasn't trying to show it as to not make Star panic even more.

"Now come on." He said. "I promise Janna will be okay."

"Okay." Star said. "Okay."

Together they went back down to the hospitals lobby, where Eclipsa, Globgor, Janna's parents, Marco's parents and Star's parents were waiting.

"Well?" Eclipsa asked. "How is she?"

"We- we weren't allowed to see her." Marco said. "Doctors orders."

"What!" Janna's father said. "I want to know how my daughter is doing, or I will-"

"Dear." His wife said. "Not right now, please."

"Right. Right. Sorry." He looked over at Eclipsa. "Why did this happen again?" He asked.

"Well… the police apparently found a note inside the house. We still haven't seen it, as I think they're examining it. But from what they've told us, whoever did this wasn't after your daughter at all. They were after my daughter and Mr and Mrs Diaz's daughter. I think Janna was just...in their way at the time."

"In their way, huh?" Janna's father said. "We saw her. If she was in their way, then they sure did one hell of a job of getting her out of their way."

"Listen." Eclipsa said. "I think that-"

"Excuse me." A sudden voice said. It was the doctor from earlier.

"Oh, it's you." Star said, with noticeable disdain in her voice. "What do you want?"

"Ummm, well Ms. Ordonia is awake. And...she wants to speak with you."

"She's awake?!" Her mother said. "Can we talk to her?"

"...No. Sorry. She requested that only a...Star butterfly and a Marco Diaz talk to her at this time. I apologize, but that's what she said."

"Okay." Star said. "Marco, come on."

Marco got up from where he was sitting to follow the doctor, but Janna's father put a hand on his shoulder.

"Please tell me that she's okay."

Marco looked up at him and nodded. "I will. Don't worry."

With that, the doctor led Star and Marco to a hospital room. "She's in there." He said. "Please don't touch anything and keep it brief."

"Right." Marco said. They both went inside and closed the door behind them.

Janna was on a bed, with bandages covering most of her and several tubes connected to IV stands coming out of her. But she seemed to be conscious. Well, conscious enough.

"Hey you two." She said weakly. "It's nice to see that that quack doctor actually followed my request."

"Oh Janna…" Star said. "How...are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm fine." She said. "Believe me, I can take this. I should be up and about in a few days."

"Janna, I think the injuries you have would constitute a stay of more than a few days. You looked like you were dead when we found you. Your were hardly breathing." Marco said in concern.

"That was sarcasm Marco. But seriously, I'd like to leave soon."

"Why do you want to leave?" Star asked.

Janna's eyes slipped to the side, as if she was hiding something from them. "Oh, you know. I don't want you guys to worry too much about me."

"It's impossible for us to worry anymore about you right now than we already do Janna. That's not the real reason, is it?" Marco asked.

Janna remained silent.

"You want revenge on whoever did this, don't you?"

"No, actually." She said. "Well, maybe a little, but that's not the real reason. The real reason is...I don't want to be in this hospital when the fireworks start."

"The fireworks?" Marco said. "What do you mean?"

"Listen." Janna said. "Before this happened to me, I've been hearing whispers from some of my more...high-profile friends."

"High-Profile? How high-profile are we talking?"

"Let's just say that, if need be, they can have people "taken care of." That kind of high-profile."

Star took a deep breath. "Janna, as your friend, I'm advising you to break ties with these friends of yours for your own safety."

Janna chuckled. "Heh. Too late for that. Anyways, as I was saying, I've been hearing whispers and rumors. That there's somebody new in town. Someone they're scared of. I heard that my friends are gonna leave the town soon. Whatever this new guy has planned, my friends don't see it as worth it to get in his way."

"Any idea who he is?" Star asked.

"No clue. But I wouldn't be surprised if he's behind the whole baby kidnapping thing."

"Well, that's just great." Marco said sarcastically. "But how do we stop them?"

Janna smiled and looked like she wanted to laugh, but couldn't. "You can't. You don't. If my friends are scared of this guy, then you should be too. And by scared, I mean terrified. My friends don't scare easily, and if they're scared enough that they want to leave town, then that's honestly probably the best option for all of us."

"Are you going to leave town?" Marco asked.

"Nah." Janna said. "Whoever this is, I'm not going to take this sitting down. Stand and fight, even if I can't stand at the moment."

"Do you know who it was that attacked you at the Diazes house?" Star asked.

"No. It was too dark. Although they did yell something at me. Something about being a traitor and a monster lover."

Star and Marco exchanged glances.

"We're going to go Janna." Star said.

"Okay. Go home. Go to sleep. It's already ten o'clock already." Janna said. "See you two later, I guess."

Star and Marco both got up and started to leave the room, but Janna stopped them.

"Hey, Marco! Wait. I want to talk to you."

"Just me?" Marco said, confused.

"Yeah. Star, could you leave the room for a second?"

"Already on my way out, but okay." Star left the room and closed the door behind her, leave Janna and Marco alone.

"So, what is it that you want to talk to me about?" Marco asked.

Janna simply smiled. She slowly raised her arm and outstretched her enclosed hand.

"What are you-"

Janna opened her hand, revealing an object that made Marco's eyes go wide.

"Where did you get that?" He hissed at her in a combination of anger and disbelief.

Janna grinned the grin of a thief. "I found this little ring in your wallet. Probably should have hidden it in a better place."

Janna turned the ring in her hand and examined it. "It's expensive too. That's a real diamond. Let me guess: Is this the ring you're gonna propose to Star with?"

Marco looked from the ring, then to Janna, then back to the ring with sweat trickling from his face. Janna was the last person he wanted to know about this, as the odds that she would keep her mouth shut were slim at best.

"Okay…" Marco said. "I have an explanation for that."

"Oh, I can't _wait _to hear this. Is it gonna happen soon? I want to be there when you pop her the question. Or maybe-"

"It's not gonna happen anytime soon!" Marco said suddenly. "At least, I don't think so."

He sighed. "Listen, Moon and River got that for me."

"Stars parents? But why would they do that?"

"Well, when they heard that me and Star were together, I think they got a bit ahead of themselves and bought me this ring to propose to her with. But I don't think they realized at the time that Earth traditions are different than Mewnian traditions. On Mewni, apparently the correct age to propose is 16 or 17. So that the queen has plenty of time to prepare for being a queen before they grow up."

"Why would Star even be the queen?" Janna asked. "I thought that was Eclipsa's whole thing now. Once she retires or whatever, I figured that Meteora would be the next queen."

"She would be, but Meteora is still a baby. It's gonna be a decade and a half before she's ready to become queen. And in that time, Eclipsa wants Star to be queen for a while or something so she can better strengthen the relationship between Earth and Mewni. Because Star's spent a time of time on Earth, you know. But I think the real reason is that Eclipsa is tired of being queen and having to deal with everything that Earthni has brought."

Janna rolled her eyes. "So Eclipsa doesn't want to be queen. And Star doesn't. And Moon doesn't really want to either. Talk about the world's least desirable job."

Marco laughed. "I know, right? But seriously, somebody has to do it."

"And once Star steps up, you're going to be king, right?"

Marco blushes slightly. "I guess, but I think that's going a little too far ahead."

"Why?"

"Well, I love Star, but I think that...that...hey! Why am I even talking to you about this?"

Janna burst out laughing, but then suddenly stopped.

"Okay. Ow. That hurts. But I got you good. But when you do decide to propose to her, make sure to tell me when so I can see it."

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever. Can I have that ring back now?"

"Yup." Janna tossed the ring to Marco, who caught it and looked at it before putting it in his pocket. "Please don't take it again."

"No promises. Now you better leave before that doctor comes in and tears you apart for taking too long."

"Got it." Marco left the room, took one last look at Janna and closed the door. Star had been waiting outside. They both started walking together back to the hospitals lobby.

Star suddenly spoke up. "Do you think that Mina-"

"I don't know."

"It's possible she's behind this."

"I don't know why she would kidnap my sister though."

"Maybe she didn't intend to."

They made it back down to the lobby.

"Guys." Star said. "We think we know who-"

"We know who did it! We just got a call from the police!" Eclipsa said.

"Oh. Who?"

"It's Mina loveberry! She left a ransom not saying that if all monsters don't leave the town and that if we don't appoint her the new leader, then Meteora and Mariposa will never be found again!"

"Oh god." Marco said. "Well, our suspicions were confirmed. Did the note say anything else?"

"No." Globgor said. "Just that, but in more dramatic terms."

"What now?" Star said.

"Well, we're going down to the police station to help out with some descriptions of Meteora. But you two should go home." Eclipsa said.

"Um, we can't really go home." Marco said. "It's kind of blocked off by police tape."

"I know. But you can stay at the monster temple. The beds you two used from when you stayed there are still there."

"Thanks Eclipsa." Star said. "That...really means a lot right now."

"Of course." A few police officers appeared and Eclipsa and Globgor walked off, followed by a worried Rafael and Angie.

"Okay." Janna's mother said. "We're leaving too." They followed the police out of the building. Star and Marco were left alone with Moon and River, creating a slightly awkward situation.

"Sooo mom." Star said. "Are you going to help out with the investigation?"

Moon sighed. "I wouldn't be able to do anything anyways. But it's nice to see you again dear. Even if it's under...unfortunate circumstances."

Star smiled. "Yeah. It's nice to see you again too mom." Star turned around and walked out of the hospital. "Come on Marco."

Marco looked at Star, and then back at Moon and River, and then followed Star, leaving them behind.

"Is that it?" He said. "You haven't seen your mom in a week, and that's all you're going to say to her?"

"Marco, right now, that's all that's needed to be said."

"Okay then."

The walk through Echo creek back to the monster temple was slow, silent, and possibly unnerving. For some reason, both of them expected to get attacked by someone at any random moment. But who could blame them? After discovering that Mina was behind the baby-kidnapping, and after Janna's warning of someone new in town that even her criminal friends were scared of, it made sense for them to be afraid of someone jumping at them out of nowhere.

Star looked at the people in the street. It was late, so there wasn't that many, but there was still quite a few. She wondered if any of these people even knew about what was happening right now, or, based on Janna's warning, what was to come.

Finally, they made it back to the monster temple. But a few feet from the door, Star stopped and turned around, looking down at the town. She sat down on one of the steps leading up the door and looked out at the town. Marco sat next to her, but Star didn't react.

"So." He started. "Why-"

"Shhhhh." She said. "Give me a minute."

Star stared out at the town, it's lights flickering in the distance like a million candles, waiting to be blown out. She wondered how many people down there knew. About the "fireworks" that Janna was talking about. If people started leaving the town, then panic would spread, and then when the panic spread, what would happen?

Chaos.

Star had seen plenty of that. What with all the enemies and monsters she had to fight, from Ludo to Toffee to Meteora and Mina, all of them had induced panic in the people of Mewni, and it always led to the same thing.

"Hey." Marco said.

Star looked at him.

"Are you okay?"

"No." She said. "No. I'm not."

She got up.

"I'm scared Marco."

"Of what?" He asked, concerned.

"Of everything!" She said. "I don't know what to do. Everytime it seems like we can have a happy life together, something always sweeps in and takes it apart. I was so happy with you. Being together with you. The last few months have been the happiest months of my life. I wished it would never end.

But now Eclipsa's daughter and your sister have been kidnapped, and Janna is in the hospital, because of Mina, and apparently there's someone even worse out there now, who's causing people to start leaving the town out of fear. People will be looking to Eclipsa for help when this new person or whatever finally shows themselves, but how can she do that when Meteora is missing? She'll have enough on her plate to deal with already."

Star stretched her hand out towards the town.

"I wish...that I could just have a normal life again. Without all the queen stuff. Without all the problems. Without anything. I wish I could be like the people down in Echo creek. The people who don't have to worry about these things."

"Star." Marco said. "The people in Echo creek don't have lives without problems. Dealing with this sort of stuff is just part of living. We all have to deal with these sort of things. Especially soon. If someone's out there causing people to be afraid and leaving town, then it could be everybody's problem. And that's why we have to calm down, and try and stop whoever it is before that happens."

"But what if we can't?" Star said. "Every time someone comes along trying to kill us, they always succeed in some way. To get rid of Toffee the first time, I had to destroy the wand. To get rid of Toffee the second time, I had to die...I think... and then come back. Meteora was too strong, and would have killed us all if Eclipsa didn't stop her. And we only stopped Mina by destroying all magic. Mina still beat us in some way. Only the destruction of magic saved us.

But this time, what if it's permanent. What if they win, but permanently. What if we can't find a way to stop whoever it is? What if this time, we-"

Marco quickly got up and hugged Star from behind, unable to see her panic any further.

"I know." He said. "I get it. But right now, just...calm down. For me. For the people down in the town. If they're going to need our help soon, then we can't show them that we're afraid as well. We have to show them that we're strong, and that we'll take down whatever comes our way, no matter how bad it is."

Star contemplated this for a moment. "But what if we don't?"

Marco smiled. "Then I promise we'll still have each other."

"No matter what?"

"No matter what."

Star turned around and faced him.

"Star," Marco said. "I-"

Star didn't hesitate. She leaned forward and kissed him. Marco suddenly drew back out of surprise, but a second later, he returned the kiss and the two continued out of sheer passion for each other.

The world around Star and Marco suddenly fell away, and all of Star's worries, her fears, and everything else she had just gone on about disappeared. Marco started caressing her cheek, and for a moment, all was right in the world. It only lasted a few seconds, but seemed to go on forever.

They then separated and stared at each other, blushing and smiling at each other.

"You wanted me to calm down right?" Star said. "Because that's how I calm down."

Marco laughed. "I thought listening to my heartbeat did that for you."

"Well, that too."

"Good." Marco said. "Now come inside. It's getting late and I'm tired?"

"Seriously though," Star said. "How can you stay so calm?"

"Like I said, neverzone training. I'm very good at staying calm in stressful situations."

**An hour ago…**

"Okay, anti-stress pills, starts taking effect a half-hour after consumption, do not take more than three at a time."

"..."

"I'll take five."

**An hour later…**

Star and Marco entered the temple and went back to their old rooms that they had shared when they lived there. Star remembered every memory that they had shared together at this place like it was yesterday. Archibald suddenly approached them.

"Princess Star!" He said. "I heard what happened. Is everything okay with the queen? Who is responsible?"

Star, too enthralled with Marco to even hear Archibald words, ignored him and walked right by. Marco however, simply said, "Archibald, take the rest of the day off." He then followed Star into the temple.

"I mean, it's already ten o' clock, but okay…" Archibald said, confused at the two teens behavior.

Star and Marco then finally made it to their old room, with the bunk bed still there. Star walked over to it and simply fell in the bottom bunk.

"Guess I'm sleeping in my normal clothes. Doesn't matter." She said. "Too tired to do anything else."

"Suit yourself." Marco said, taking his shoes off and throwing in the floor. "But you're right. I'm too tired as well."

He then climbed on the top bunk and lay there, thinking about everything that had happened. Even though his little sister had been kidnapped, Mina was back, and there was another threat out there that they knew virtually nothing about, he wasn't concerned about any of it.

'Huh.' He thought. 'Those pills really the job. I feel like I'm gonna pass out though. That's normal right?'

"So." She said. "What are we about Mina?"

"Hmm?" Marco said. "Oh. I don't know. I think this should be left to the police Star. They have the real experience in this. I feel like we'll just get in their way."

"But Marcooo! We have to do know me. I'm not just going to stand by in this sort of situation. I have to take charge! And you can help! It'll be like the old days! Us going on adventures together, solving mysteries, you know? Before everything...else happened."

"Star, this is something different. But, I guess if you really want to, I can't say no. Besides, I know I can't resist your puppy-dog eyes that you would give me."

"Heh." Star said. "No one could ever resist those."

"Mmm-hmm. But I suppose a good place to Star would be with Needles."

"Wait, who?" Star said.

"Needles. Remember that time we had to get Janna to retrace her steps? Well, she said that some people are leaving town. Now, these people are almost certainly part of the towns underworld. That needle guy is part of it. Well, the knitting underworld or something. But I think he would be a good start to find Mina and find out more about that new guy that everybody's scared of."

"So, you big plan…" Star said while laughing. "Is to ask the guy who's part of the knitting Underworld?"

"Hey." Marco said. "It's what I got."

"No. No, it's fine. Let's do it. We have to start somewhere I guess…"

Marco and Star tried to go to sleep, something felt wrong. They could both feel it. They suddenly both realized at the same time what it was.

"Marco, can you-"

"Yup." He said, swinging down over the side of the bed and laying down next to Star.

"Ahh." She said happily. "Much better." She then hugged him and pulled him closer to her.

"You know," She said. "If everything turns out okay in the end, then we should totally take a vacation."

"To where?"

"I was thinking...the same beach we went to in beach day. When we got that photo of us taken."

"You think so?"

"Yeah." Star said, yawning. "It would be...fun…"

Star then closed her eyes and feel asleep. Marco smiled and kissed her on the head. "Goodnight Star," He said.

"I promise we'll get that next beach day when all this is over." And with that, he fell asleep as well, with the only thing on his mind being Star.

**End chapter 3**

**A/N: Y'all better enjoy Starco moment like this while it lasts, because soon enough shits gonna hit the fan, and there won't be that much time for these moments.**

**Until the next time.**


	4. Chapter 4: Two birds, one stone

**Aflame**

**Chapter 4**

**Two birds, one stone**

Marco opened his eyes slowly as he brought himself back to the waking world. He could feel in his mind that it was already morning. The flashback of yesterday's events suddenly came back to him at full force. He groaned and looked down at Star, who was still asleep and hugging him as tight as she could. He decided that he should probably wake her up now. If they were going to do some kind of investigation like she said they should do, then they should probably start early in the day.

"Starrr…." He said slowly. "Wake up."

Star murmured something, opened her eyes and looked up at him.

"Marco?" She said. "What time is it?

"I..think it's about seven o'clock."

Star closed her eyes and buried her face in Marcos chest again. "You know the rules Marco." She said, her voice muffled. "Don't wake me up before eight o' clock unless I wake up first or if it's an emergency. Besides, I had one of the worst dreams. Meteora and Mariposa got kidnapped, Janna got sent to the hospital, and there was some unknown threat that was scaring everybody."

Marco sighed. "Star, that actually happened, remember? I woke you up because if we're going to try and find Meteora and Mariposa, then we should start early."

Star paused for a second. "I know." She said. "But I was still hoping it was just a dream."

"We all do Star. I can't even imagine what Eclipsa, Globgor, and my parents are doing right now."

"Probably helping the police out with stuff. Either that or the police sent them back home to the monster temple. I imagine that they're not getting any sleep either."

"You think so?" Marco said.

"I know so." Star said. "I hardly got any sleep when my mom went missing back in Mewni. I can't even imagine what it would be like to lose your own child. I have a feeling that they won't sleep a wink until she's found."

"And _that _is why we're getting up early to find them. The earlier we find them, the earlier we can stop Mina."

"Don't forget about that "new guy."" Star said. "The one Janna warned us about. The one that was scaring a bunch of people and making them leave the town."

"We'll have that as our second priority." Marco said. Unless they're the ones responsible for the kidnapping, we'll have to deal with that later. But for now, we should get up."

Marco climbed out of the bed and walked into the nearby bathroom. "Don't worry about this "new guy" right now. Just get up for now and get ready to leave. Remember, we're going to visit Needles for information. Hopefully he's still in town." He said before closing the door.

Star sighed and climbed out of the bed as well, waiting for Marco. She hoped that the whole situation could be finished before the end of the day, lest Eclipsa and Globgor lose another night of sleep. Not to mention Marco's parents. She just realized that she hadn't had the opportunity to speak to them about any of this. Yesterday night at the hospital, they had to leave with the police before she could speak to them. They probably weren't taking this well either.

But could anyone? Meteora and Mariposa were now in the hands of the most racist and xenophobic monster-hater in all of Mewman history, and Meteora was half-monster. Considering what they had done to Janna, they had clearly shown that they didn't shy from hurting people that even associated with monsters. Everybody that wasn't with them was an enemy. Especially the ones close to Eclipsa and Star. It made sense to freak out.

But speaking of which, Star herself was shocked with how freaked-out Marco was last night, in that he wasn't freaked out at all. Maybe Janna had done something to him while he was alone with her in the hospital room. Hypnotized him or something. She wondered if Janna could do that to her as well. She could use it in a time like this.

The door to the bathroom then swung open, and Marco came out still drying his hands. "So," He said. "You're ready to go, right?"

"I didn't have to get ready at all considering I'm already in my normal clothes, but yeah." Star said. "Let's go and find those two babies. We'll be hailed as heroes!"

Marco made a "pfft" sound. "I guess, but almost certainly after a three-hour long scolding by the police and our parents about why trying to solve crimes by ourselves is a bad idea. We have to try and stay safe during all of this."

Star laughed. "Alright "safe kid." Don't worry about any of that."

Marco chuckled at his nickname, and grabbed his shoes and put them on. "Come on." He said, walking out of the room. "I think it's time we take care of Mina once and for all."

"I don't think we've ever agreed more on something else Diaz."

Star followed Marco out of the room and the two of them went through the monster temple, only to be interrupted by Archibald again, just like when they arrived last night.

"Eclipsa's back." He said. "She told me to tell you so that you didn't go out and try and search for her."

"Thanks Archibald." Star said. "But we weren't going to go out and search for her anyways."

"Then where are you going?" He asked.

"We're going to search for-"

"A good breakfast spot!" Marco interjected. "We're...going to search for that to try and get our minds off everything that's happened."

"Then have fun." Archibald said. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go bring the queen some stress pills."

'Geez, does everybody just use those or what?' Marco thought. 'But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You'd think the company that produces those pills would be the richest in the world considering the current state of it. And that's just Earthni.'

Archibald flew off, leaving a confused Star.

"Why did you interrupt me?" She asked. "What's the worst that could happen if they know we're searching for Meteora and Mariposa?"

"They'll try to stop us Star." Marco said. "I have a feeling that this whole thing is just another way for Mina to hurt Eclipsa, and if Mina gets to us, then we're also just gonna be another way Mina can hurt her. They probably don't want us doing this because we might be next on Mina's list of people to kidnap or kill or whatever."

"That's a good point." Star said. "But we still have to do something."

"Yeah." Marco said. "We are."

With that finished, Star and Marco left the monster temple and slowly descended the seemingly endless stairs to get to the town. It was a work day, so there were already several people and cars on the streets. Star looked at each person carefully, wondering if any of them had been part of the kidnapping. Mina had to have several people working with her, and it could be anyone. They had to remain vigilant for signs.

"So this Needles guy is part of the knitting underworld?" Star asked.

"Yeah." Marco said. "Or something like that. I remember that there was this code that Janna did to talk to him. We also had to get a bunch of tennis balls. I just hope that he hasn't left town already."

Star shook her head. "Marco, he's part of the _knitting _underworld. Not the real underworld, criminal or demon. I don't think he actually commits any crimes. The people Janna were talking about were ones she said could have other people "taken care of." There's no way Needles is part of that group. The best hope is that he redirects us to another person."

"I suppose." Marco said. "But speaking of the Underworld, have you heard back from Tom? I feel like he would be back by now."

"No." Star said. "I haven't heard anything from him since he went in that little vacation with his parents. They're probably still swimming in lakes made of fire."

"Well, he deserves a vacation. After being hounded by the government for months due to the fact that he can still open portals with his demon powers, he needs a break."

"Yeah…" Star said. "I don't know why he can still do that. I wonder if he can open a portal to any dimension, or just to Underworld and this one."

"We can ask him when he gets back. But for now...we've arrived."

Star looked to her left and saw that Marco was correct. This was it. The same graffiti-covered alleyway that they had gone to when they needed to get to Mewni right before the Solarians attacked.

But something was wrong.

Last time they were here, the alley had been full of knitting's, actual needles, and endless amount of string and twine. But there was none of that here. Just an empty alleyway.

"Are...you sure this is the right place?" Star asked.

"Yeah." Marco said. "This is the same place. I guess they must have left already."

"I was," A voice from behind them suddenly said. "But I forgot something."

Star and Marco whipped around at the sound of the voice. It was Needles, carrying several large bags and looking extremely disheveled. Behind him was a large van that had pulled up at the alleyway, and inside were several of Needles friends that Star remembered from the last time she saw him.

"What are you two kids doing here?" He asked. "Were you looking for me?"

"Yeah, actually." Marco said. "We want to ask you some questions."

"Feel free to ask." He said. "But make it quick. I just came here because I forgot something for Omega-one."

"Omega-one?" Star asked.

"I...think that's his dog." Marco said.

"That's right." Needles said. "And now me, and Omega-one, and everybody else have nowhere to go. But we have to go anyways." Needles walked past and started overturning the numerous trash bags in the alleyway, evidently looking for something.

Not wanting to wait for him to finish, Star spoke up. "Okay. Uh...Needles. Listen, two babies were just kidnapped recently and we were wondering if you-"

Needles interrupted her mid-syllable. "Knew anything about how to get them back?" He said. "No. No, I don't. And I don't want to. I know who did it. The whole town will know soon."

"Wait, how?" Marco asked.

"Today's newspaper." Needles responded, taking a piece of paper out of one of his bags and handing it to Star. "Fresh off the press."

Star took the newspaper and read the headline. "Mina Loveberry attacks teenage girl and kidnaps two babies. Jeez. That was fast."

"Yeah, well, the police want people to be on the lookout. I think normally they would try to keep this incident as quiet as possible in order to not cause too much panic, but they're definitely tired of Mina now, and they want the whole town to be on the lookout for her."

"Well, that's actually the main reason we're here." Marco saisd. "Do you know anything? Do you have any idea where Mina is?"

Needles shook his head. "Sorry kid. I got nothing. I have no idea where she is. The best hope you have for finding her would be to ask one of the Mewmans. We just knit. We don't deal with stuff like baby kidnappings. Never have, never will. That's why we're leaving."

"But...but what about Janna?" Star said. "She's your friend, right? You had to have heard about what happened to her."

"And _that _is another reason we're leaving kid." Needles said. "We don't want to take any chances with people like. What happened to Janna basically showed the whole town that if you're not with Mina, you're her enemy. And she shows no mercy to enemies."

"That's not the whole reason." Marco said.

"Hmm?"

"You're not just scared of Mina, aren't you? There's somebody else."

Needles took a deep breath. "I don't know where you heard that rumor…"

"Janna told us." Star said. "She told us that some people were scared because somebody new is in town. Somebody that nobody wants to stand up to."

"Listen to me kid." Needles said. "If you do see this person, do _not _get in their way. They're dangerous. Even more so than Mina. The rumors I'm hearing about them...I can't even imagine what kind of person that is."

"Who are they?" Marco asked. "We need to know."

"Don't know. Don't want to know. Everybody just sees it as easier to leave than get in their way."

"You're not just scared of getting in their way. Whoever this is doesn't care about you." Star said. "You're scared of what they're _going _to do. Janna said something about everybody leaving before the "fireworks" start. You guys are leaving before that happens, so you don't get caught up in it."

Needles nodded. "You're a smart one. So you should be smart enough to know that trying to stop them is a bad idea. Seriously. That's my last bit of advice to you."

Needles turned over another garbage bag and found what he was looking for. He grabbed the tennis ball and turned it over in his hand. He suddenly stopped, then took something out of his pocket that Star couldn't see. He fiddled with the ball and the object, then looked over at Star and Marco.

"Tell you what. Take this." He said, tossing the ball to Star, who caught it. "Something to remember me by. Give it to Janna. Tell her...thanks. For all the times she helped us out with the goods. Also tell her sorry I don't have a new hat for her."

Needle then walked past Star and Marco and climbed into the back seat of the van. "See you two later. Or not…" He closed the door and the van sped off, never to return.

Both teens watched the van leave, and after it was out of sight, Marco scoffed and kicked at the empty air.

"Well, that was useless." Marco said. "Of course it was. Get help from the person part of the knitting underworld. Brilliant idea Marco. Just brilliant."

"Hey." Star said. "Don't beat yourself up. I suppose we better go to Janna and give her this tennis ball-"

Star suddenly stopped speaking and stared at the ball wide-eyed.

"What's wrong?" Marco asked. Then he noticed what she was staring at.

There was writing on the tennis ball. Very small writing, but still legible.

"Is that writin-" Marco started to ask, but Star quickly put her finger to his lips, shushing him. She then pointed at the tennis ball, and Marco slowly read out the message on it in his mind.

"Old abandoned DMV outside of town. Mina's hideout. Couldn't say anything. Ears everywhere. Don't speak about it."

Marco looked at Star, his eyes now the same size as hers.

"You know," He said. "I have an idea. Why don't we...go check out the shopping district? You know, try to get our minds off this whole thing. We need a break."

Star understood what he was telling her. The shopping district was right next to the abandoned buildings. But they had to watch their words. If there really was somebody listening in to them, then every word could be dangerous.

"Yeah." She said. "We should go. Who knows, maybe we'll run into Ponyhead or a couple of our other friends. We haven't seen them in a while."

"Great idea Star!" He said cheerfully. Both of them smiled at each other, although both of them were currently fearing for their lives, as if somebody had a gun trained on their heads ready to fire if they said the wrong thing.

Star put the tennis ball in her pocket and they both walked out of the alleyway back to the sidewalk, then headed toward the shopping district.

There were many more people on the street now, but Star couldn't look at them. She was too paranoid. The message that was on that tennis ball had taken its toll on her, and now she was hoping that a random person didn't stab them with a knife right there and then.

After several anxiety-induced minutes of walking, they had finally made it to the shopping district, and were almost at the abandoned part of town.

"Almost there." Star whispered to Marco. He nodded in response. Star continued looking from side-to side-, until she got sick of it. Frustrated. She was tired of this already.

'Geez, why am I so worried?' Star thought to herself. We're in the middle of the sidewalk. It's not like somebody is just gonna appear and kill us right here. There's too many people, too many witnesses, not to mention Marco's here as well.'

'Come on!' She thought. 'You're not some cowardly little princess. You're Star butterfly! You've faced down giant monsters before. Even without the wand! I'm not scared because I don't have magic to defend myself! I was never scared to not have magic. I know how to fight! Not to mention I have Marco's help. I have...wait... Marco.'

It was then that she realized. She looked towards Marco, and then at the people on the street.

'Oh…' She thought. 'I'm not scared for myself, am I? I'm scared for the others. For Marco. For the people of Mewni and Earth. I'm worried about them. About them getting caught up in a situation that might be targeted towards me or Eclipsa and them getting hurt in the process.

But that's what always happens, isn't it? Every time somebody tries to do something to get at me or Eclipsa , everybody else gets caught up in it. Marco, the people of Mewni, my mom and Dad, all those people. Every time somebody tried to steal the wand or get rid of monsters or anything like that, people got stuck in the middle. They always got hurt. What if more people get hurt this time? And what if it's permanent?'

Star shook off those thoughts. 'Don't think like that.' She thought. 'All those times, we figure it out. All those times, we stopped the people trying to get at us. Even if we had to lose things in order to do it, like I was thinking about last night, it all worked it in the end. This time, it'll work out as well. I'm- I'm sure of it.'

Star contained walking forward through the town with Marco, now with the confidence that everything would hopefully turn out okay. She had herself and Marco, and everybody else. She had solved problems like this before. She could do it again.

Finally, they reached the end of the shopping district, and made it to the abandoned part of town. There were no people there. Not a soul in sight. Cautiously, they moved towards the old DMV. A minute later, there it stood. Broken, worn-out, empty.

"Star, wait." Marco said. "We don't know what's in there. If we do know that Mina is in there, shouldn't we call the police? It would be best for them to handle this. Besides, if we just barged in there, we would probably be outnumbered. We don't know how many people Mina had on her side, and we could end up in the hospital like Janna, or worse."

Star thought about this. Marco made a good point. They didn't really know what was in there, or if anybody was there and Needles was lying for some reason.

But they couldn't just call the police. They had to make sure that this was Mina's hideout. If they called the police and they searched this empty building for no reason, then it would be a waste of time. Or even worse, maybe Needles was with Mina and was trying to get home to tell the police to go there, so that Mina and her followers could do something else while they were all distracted.

So they had to do _something_.

"Okay." She said. "I have an idea." Star pointed up at the roof. "I know there's a ladder that behind the building that leads up to the roof. There's a door on the roof that leads into the building. Why they have that there, I don't know."

"How...do you know all that?" Marco asked her, curious.

"Oh, Janna showed me. She knows how to sneak into every building in Echo creek."

Marco sighed. "Of course she does. But what do we do then?"

"We see if anybody's inside. If there aren't, great. We look around. If there are, then we try and see how many and then we leave and calm the police. That way, everybody wins. We get to help, and don't get just barge inside."

"Alright. And hopefully Meteora and Mariposa are in there as well. We can kill two birds with one stone. Stopping Mina and finding the babies." Marco said. "But let's still try to be careful."

After a few seconds of searching, they both found the ladder that led up to the roof and climbed up it. There was indeed a door on the roof. Star cautiously opened it and looked down the stairs.

"Good thing it wasn't locked." She whispered. "Guess nobody bothered to, considering they we're going to destroy these buildings anyways. And I bet Mina forgot as well."

Slowly, and quietly, they made their way down the stairs into the main building. They were presented with another door. Star opened it slightly and peaked out through the crack.

She didn't see anybody. There were signs that there had been people there, such as a few overturned chairs and empty cups, but other than that, the place was empty. She opened the door slightly more, and, continuing to see nobody, opened it completely.

"There's nobody here." Star said. "Everybody's left."

"Still," Marco said. "We shouldn't stay too long. We don't know when they'll come back."

"I don't think so." Star said, picking up one of the cups sitting nearby. "Look at these cups. They still have some kind of liquid at the bottom. Somebody drank from them recently. Which means somebody was here recently. Which means that if nobody's here, then they probably just left."

"But...why?" Marco said. "Do you think Meteora and Mariposa are here somewhere?"

"I hope said." Star said. "Let's just keep looking."

And keep looking they did. But as they continued searching the building, one thought kept lingering at the back of Star's mind: 'Where did everybody go? If this was their base, why would they just leave suddenly? Wouldn't it make sense to have at least one person guarding it at all times?"

"Hey!" Marco called out suddenly. "I think I found something."

"What did you find?" Star asked. She walked over to Marco and noticed what he was looking at. A door, with several noises faintly audible from behind it. Star pressed her ear up against it.

"It sounds like...crying?" Star and Marco looked at each, a moment of realization coming to them.

"You think it's them?"

"It could be a trap Star…"

"Only one way to find out."

"Wait Star! Don't just-"

Too late. Unable to contain her excitement at the possibility of finding Meteora and Mariposa, Star kicked in the door. It swung open, one of its hinges broken.

Luckily, there was nobody else inside but Meteora and Mariposa, laying alone together in a cardboard box on the floor, crying.

"Oh thank Mewni." Star said, rushing forward and picking both the babies up.

"What if somebody was in here Star?" Marco said.

"Sorry. Couldn't contain myself." Star said, handing off Mariposa to Marco.

"Hey, it's okay." Star said, comforting the crying Meteora. "We're here now. We'll get you back to your mother, and then we'll tell the police about this place and hopefully they can arrest Mina."

"Star." Marco said, his voice suddenly deadpan.

"What is…it." She said, seeing what Marco was staring at.

It was a large board filled with papers, plans, and addresses. This was no doubt the linchpin of Mina's plan for taking back Echo creek from it's "monster threat."

"This...this is great!" Star said. "This is everything Mina plans to do! It's all here. Every plan, every idea, every single-"

Then Star saw what Marco had seen. A piece of paper on the edge of the board. It was titled "Operation: Distraction" Below that were the worst possible words that Star could have ever thought of. Now she knew why everybody was gone. Now she knew why Meteora and Mariposa were still here. It was just a ruse. She didn't know if they had thought of this before or after the kidnapping, but it made no difference now. She slowly read out the words, hoping that she wasn't seeing straight, but in the back of her kind, she knew it had to be true.

"Main objective: Assassinate Eclipsa."

**End chapter 4**

**A/N: Well, this should go great. The next chapter will probably introduce the main antagonist, as in the person that's got everybody scared. And it's somebody new…and one that doesn't take kindly to people disobeying them. Mina's "informant."**

**But starting with the next chapter, it will probably be close to about a week between each chapter, due to some complications. I hope that everybody understands. **

**See you next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5: Operation assassination

**Aflame**

**Chapter 5**

**Operation Assassination**

**Three hours before Star and Marco go to the DMV...**

"Can somebody shut those two up?!" Mina screeched.

"What do you want us to do?" Manfred said. "We don't exactly have any food for them."

Mina was at her breaking point. Only a quarter of her followers at arrived at her early-morning meeting, she had received no response from anybody about her ransom note (despite her unrealistic expectations that she would already have one) and now the two babies that she had kidnapped just wouldn't stop crying.

"Manfred!" She yelled.

"Yes ma'am?" He asked, with noticeable annoyance in his voice. He was also at his breaking point, but mostly because of Mina.

"Where are the others?" She asked. "Why is everybody not here?"

Manfred sighed. "It _is _four in the morning ma'am. It's likely that most of them aren't even awake. When you told them about these early morning meetings, you saw that they didn't like it."

"So?!" Mina said. "Do these people not realize what we are doing here? We are liberating Mewni! We are making it better for all Mewmans! And humans. That takes precedence over all other things! Especially sleeping! How dare they skip this!"

"In all fairness…" Manfred said. "We're not exactly doing anything right now. We're all just waiting for a response from either the police about the ransom note or the stranger about what we did."

Mina looked around the room and saw that he was right. They weren't accomplishing anything at the current moment. All of her followers were either sitting or standing in random places, waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly, a loud ringing sound rang out. Everybody suddenly fell out of their stupor, and Mina smiled at the noise.

"Speak of the devil…" She said. "Manfred! Bring me the device."

"Yes ma'am." Manfred said, his spirit defeated. He walked over to one of the nearby tables and grabbed what Mina was asking for: A small, square shaped black object that appeared outside of the DMV for Mina one day. Specially used for contacting her informant, or "the Stranger,'' as she called him. Or her.

Manfred grabbed it and handed it to her. Mina pressed a small button on the side of the device and put it up to her ear like a phone. Everybody in the room looks at her, waiting for the response.

"Stanger!" She said enthusiastically. "Did you hear the news? We kidnapped those babies like I said we would. Now, I know you weren't in complete agreement with those plans, but I do think that-"

Mina was quickly interrupted by a voice on the other end, which to everybody else in the room just sounded like incomprehensible mumbling.

"I know." Mina said, after was on the other end of the line finished. "But you have to admit, it was a success! It all worked out in the end."

The stranger responded, and everybody watched as Mina suddenly frowned. "First off, It was a great idea! I don't think why you would-"

More incomprehensible speech, and Mina suddenly got a smile on her face. "Oh...I see. You're right! This is the perfect time to do that. That's the last place they'll think to look for us! But are you sure that will work? You've set everything up?"

Minas followers simply stared in confusion, not having any idea what she was going on about. "That's a great idea. And we have to go now?"

"..."

"Right. Good. I'll tell the others immediately. We won't let this plan of yours fail. And after we're done, we'll take control of Mewni. Goodbye."

Mina presses the button in the device, set it down on a nearby table, and turned towards her followers.

"New plan everybody !" She announced. "We're going to the monster temple and assassinating the queen!"

This remark was met with shock around the room, and anybody who was half-asleep was now wide awake.

"Assassinate?!" Somebody said. "Are you serious?"

"Yes!" Mina said. "Why aren't you? Just yesterday you were all practically jumping for joy at my suggestion that we would kill Meteora's baby if we didn't get what we wanted."

"But...how are we supposed to get to her?" Doug-Doug asked. "She's likely surrounded by guards."

"You're kidding, right?" Mina said. "Don't you remember? Eclipsa made it so that she wasn't constantly surrounded by guards at all times. To make it look like she was a benevolent peace-loving ruler. She thought she was safe! It's also the best time as well. Early in the morning, when everybody just woke up, they'll never see it coming!"

"Wouldn't it be better to do this at night?" Manfred asked. "Use the darkness to disguise us like we did when we stole the babies?"

"That's the genius of it." Mina said. "Those fools will be expecting us to do something at night. But if we do something at a time that nobody expects, like early in the morning, then we can take them completely by surprise. Then, once Eclipsa's dead, her husband Globgor will go on a rampage."

"How can you be so sure?"

"He's a monster! That's what they do! Now, once that happens, the people of Mewni and this town will see that deep down monsters are violent, bloodthirsty animals. They will turn on them. Then we will sit back and watch the fun, and when all monsters have been exterminated, I will take control. All traitors will be executed or exiled. We have no need for them."

"And what of the babies we kidnapped?" Somebody asked.

Mina smiled maliciously, in anticipation of what was to come. "We kill Eclipsa's little monstrosity. The human kid we'll just give back to the traitors. We don't need her. We only got her because she was at the house as well and two is better than one. Plus it gave us more leverage."

"So...how are we going to kill her?" Manfred asked.

"Simple!" Mina said, walking over to the whiteboard where they wrote their plans and grabbing a marker. "We sneak into the castle." She said, drawing a diagram. "But we have to be careful. According to the stranger, that little butterfly brat and her boyfriend are staying there, not to mention other monsters. We have to take caution. Then, we find Eclipsa. She'll either be asleep, or very sleep deprived. I doubt she slept a wink last night with her child gone. Then, we do the deed. I have a weapon with me that will be perfect for this job. Then we sneak back out. All of us are going. We can't take any chances here. We need numbers so that if we run into any monsters, we'll be able to take them down. As much as I hate to say it, those filthy creatures are stronger than most of us, so we need to work together."

"Then, we go back and do the other stuff I said earlier. Kill the brat baby, and wait for monster hate to spread. Simple as that."

Everybody in the room thought this over. Like the easily convinced buffoons they were, they nodded along and agreed with Mina's plan.

"Excellent!" Mina said. "Now, drink the end meeting corn drink, then lets go. No time to lose. This is happening _now_!"

So off they went. After drinking their odd corn drink, the fools left the building, and quickly ran off towards the monster temple, eager to finish the plan.

**Present day…**

"They're gonna kill Eclipsa?!" Star yelled. "We-we have to stop them! Marco! Call the police! Tell them to get to the temple!"

"Where's your phone?!" He asked.

"I left it at your house! I don't have it! Call the police on yours!" Star said, not sure how much time they had.

"Right." Marco said, reaching around in his pocket. But after a moment of feeling around, he turned white-faced.

"I...don't have it." He said. "I don't understand. I had it back at the hospital, I didn't put it anywhere, why- Wait. Janna! She must have taken it while I was there. How did she even do that?!"

"Arghhhh! No time to dwell on that!" Star said. "If we can't call the police, then we have to go to the monster temple! Maybe we can stop Mina!"

Not wanting to waste any more time talking, Star and Marco ran out of the DMV with the babies, taking caution not to injure them. But, they still ran as fast as they could to the temple. Who knew when Mina and her followers left.

'This is horrible!" Star thought. 'All that time spent searching for Mina could end up being worthless if Eclipsa dies. Meteora and Mariposa are safe, but what does that matter? If Eclipsa dies, then all we've done is trade a few lives for another one.'

After three minutes of straight sprinting to the monster temple, Star and Marco finally made it their destination. But when they saw what was in front of it, they stopped in their tracks. There were six police cars in front of it and dozens of officers. Several people could be seen inside the cars, in handcuffs. Unfortunately, it did not seem that Mina was not among them. Eclipsa, Globgor, Archibald, and everybody else who lived in the temple were also outside.

"What- what happened?" Star asked.

**2 hours ago…**

Mina and her numerous followers who had accompanied her to the temple watched from their hiding place as Star and Marco left the temple, traveling down to the town.

'Good.' She thought. 'With those two gone, this should be a whole lot easier.'

She turned towards all her followers, eagerly awaiting her command.

"Alright. She whispered. "It's time." She pointed towards Manfred. "Manfred, you're lookout. If you see anybody, you rush inside and warn us. Everybody else, you're with me. I'm going to need help if anyone attacks us. Best to take then down quickly and quietly. But for Eclipsa herself…"

Mina took out a large dagger out of her pocket. "Ah yes." She said. "The same dagger I trained with 300 years ago. Almost unbreakable, and created so that it's sharper than even the largest swords. Small, yes, but a true weapon for a Solarian. And now, fittingly, I'm going to use it to get rid of our worst enemy."

Mina's entourage smiled at the thought, and slowly they moved towards the temple. They quickly entered, and Manfred waited outside of the door.

They made their way through the temple, sneaking down hallways and up staircases. Despite being a relatively large group, they managed to make it so that they were almost impossible to hear.

Despite everybody else hoping for the opposite, Mina was itching for a fight. Listening for footsteps, voices, anything that might indicate that a filthy monster was nearby.

'Where is everyone?' She thought. 'This is the capital of Eclipsa's ugly monster empire. I know for a fact that several monsters lived inside. And while I know it's still early in the morning, I expected somebody to be awake. All I saw were those two brats leaving the temple earlier, but they couldn't be it, right?'

Finally, they made it to the Eclipsa's door. Mina recognized it from the time she and the other solarians stormed the monster temple back when Mewni was still...just Mewni.

Mina slowly opened the door and looked inside until she found was she was looking for. Eclipsa. Well, at least Eclipsa's figure, beneath a blanket on her bed. The fool was still asleep. 'This will be easier than I thought.' Mina thought. For some reason though, Globgor did not seem to be next to Eclipsa. But she didn't even think twice about this. If he wasn't there, then that would just make everything easier.

'This is perfect!' She thought. 'Whenever Globgor comes back from whatever he's doing, he's going to see Eclipsa dead! And then after we kill that little child of his, he's sure to go mad! I'm positive of it! I couldn't have a better plan!' Mina thought, forgetting that the stranger was the one who had put it in her head.

Mina slowly crept towards Eclipsa, dagger in her hand, ready to stab her. All of her followers crowded in the doorway, watching her prepare to carry out the final part of the plan. When Mina reached Eclipsa, she stopped, raised the dagger above her head, and said, "Eclipsa, Queen of darkness, lover of monsters, and traitor to Mewni. I kill you in the name of Queen Solaria."

Despite these words, Eclipsa didn't stir. 'Huh. Was hoping for her to be awake for this, but if the outcome is all the same, then I don't care!'

Mina thrust the dagger down, piecing the figure underneath. She then grinned widely, happy to see the job finished.

But the smile faded.

She could feel it. Something was not right. She grabbed the edge of the blanket and yanked it off the bed, revealing…

"A fake?!" Yes, a fake. A mannequin to be exact. Mina and all the others had been duped. It was a trap.

Mina realized this at the same time that several police officers appeared out of nowhere and started to surround them.

"FREEZE!" They yelled, aiming several guns at them. "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!"

"The donut patrol?!" Mina said. "No! Not today!" Mina dropped her dagger, sprinted past the officers and leaped out of the window, falling over twenty feet to the ground. She groaned and crawled away from the temple, dragging her now broken leg behind her. Manfred suddenly appeared and approached her.

"Manfred!" She said with joy, which quickly turned to confusion and anger. "Wait, why didn't you warn us about the donut patrol?"

"Ummm…" Manfred quickly looked away. In truth, he had left the second Mina and the others had gone inside, wanting to be rid of them. "I...tried to, but there were too many."

"Huh. Well, help me up! We have to leave! The donut patrol will find me soon!"

Manfred thought about this. On one hand, he didn't want to help Mina, but on the other hand...there was no other hand.

"Help me or when I'm arrested, I'm dragging you down with me!"

Manfred sighed, slung Mina over his shoulder, and the two hobbled away out of sight. With the officers attention focused on Mina's followers inside, they managed to get away.

"Quickly Manfred!" Mina said. "Back to our base."

"Yes...Mina."

**One hour later**

Star and Marco approached one of the many police officers in front of the temple. Neither of them knew what had happened, and confusion reigned in their minds.

"Hey!" Star said. "What happened? What happened to Mina?"

The officers looked over at Star. "Oh, it's you." He said. "We got an anonymous tip last night after we left that hospital about how Mina loveberry would try to assassinate the Queen, so we set up a little sting operation for her. We couldn't get Mina herself unfortunately, but we did get everybody else from her group that was with her. I think it's It's just her now."

"Why didn't we know about this?" Marco asked.

"Eclipsa didn't want you to get involved and possibly get hurt." His eyes then fell on Meteora and Mariposa. "Although it looks like you got yourself involved anyways…"

"Umm. Yeah." Star said. "But that's not important. Listen! We know where Mina's base is! It's the old DMV in the abandoned section of town! If she escaped, then that's probably where she went!"

Star now had the officers full attention. "Are...you sure?" He asked.

Star nodded. "Positive."

The officer nodded back. "Alright. Thanks. We'll send some cars over there. But in the meantime, you should probably get that one back to the Queen." He pointed toward Meteora.

Star smiled. "Oh yeah, I probably should do that. Come on Marco."

The officer stopped her. "Don't think this is completely over though. Expect a visit from us later so we can know exactly how you got those babies back. We need all the details."

"Yeah yeah." Star said, walking past him, followed by Marco. Eclipsa noticed them and practically ran up to them, immediately taking Meteora out of Stars arms.

"Oh my baby!" She said with joy. "Star, where did you find her?"

"The old abandoned DMV. Along with Mariposa. It's Mina's base. I told one of the officers that, so she should be arrested soon. Hopefully we can finally put her behind us."

Eclipsa nodded. "Good job. Both of you. Thank you for getting the babies back."

"Wait." Marco said. "Why don't you care that we basically stormed Mina's base by ourselves? I thought you didn't want us to get hurt. That's why you didn't tell us about that sting operation in the first place."

"That is true…" Eclipsa said. "But I also didn't tell you because I knew you would try and find Meteora and Mariposa by yourselves. I knew I shouldn't try to stop you, because you two always seem to figure things out whenever there's a problem."

"Hold on." Star said. "So you didn't tell us on the faith that we would find Meteora and Mariposa by ourselves?"

"Yes." Eclipsa. "Trust me, I had plenty of faith in you. And if you didn't find them, well then nothing would change. But if you did, then it would all work out in the end. Besides, neither me nor your parents can be _too _overprotective of you. You're not random teenagers that don't know any better. You both saved Menwi countless time. I've seen enough of you to know that."

"Wow…Thanks Eclipsa." Marco said.

"You're welcome sweetie. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take Meteora over to Globgor. You should probably get the other one to Mr and Mrs Diaz. They're at the police station."

"Alright." Star said. "See you around Eclipsa."

Eclipsa smiled and walked off towards Globgor, while Star and Marco left the monster temple.

"So…" Marco said. "You wanna get some lunch after we take Mariposa back to my parents?"

"Ugh. You read my mind Marco. How about Britta's?"

"Sound perfect Star. Sounds perfect…" Marco said, happy that it was finally over. Unfortunately, in all the excitement of finally stopping Mina and Eclipsa being safe, Star and Marco forgot one vital thing.

It wasn't over, was it?

**At Mina's base...**

"Put me down there Manfred!"

Manfred obeyed Mina's command and dropped her into a chair, then started wondering why he was still putting up with any of this. He then walked off to check on Meteora and Mariposa.

"Alright." Mina said. "That was a failure. I broke my leg, everybody got arrested, and we accomplished nothing. At least we still have those babies."

"Actually…" Manfred said from the other room. "They're gone."

"WHAT?!" Mina screamed. "What do you mean they're gone!"

"I mean they're not here anymore!" Manfred said. "I wouldn't be surprised if those two kids found this place and took them…"

Mina thought about this and practically growled at the thought. "Forget about that!" She said. "It's time for a new plan. Even though it's just us now, I have an idea."

"No." Manfred said.

"What?" Mina said, looking at Manfred with newfound contempt.

"I'm not doing this anymore." He said. "I thought you would be a good investment for me, but your latest plan just failed entirely. I should have seen that it would. We're completely alone now. I'm leaving. And besides, if those two brats were the ones that took the babies, then they probably told the police about this place. They're likely going to be here any moment!"

Mina just stared at Manfred, unable to handle the fact that her last follower was now leaving her. Manfred walked towards the door.

"Don't!" Mina said. "If you leave, then I'm taking you down with me, like I said!"

"You know what, that's fine by me!" Manfred said. "Better than spending one second more in this place." With that, he left.

"NO!" Mina said, attempting to get up and chase him. But an explosion of pain came out of her broken leg as she did, and she immediately sat back down.

"Fine!" She said. "I'm going to do this myself! Once I find a way to get up, I'll contact the stranger and he's going to sort this whole mess out, and he'll bring you back to me with your head on a stick!"

"Well, you're right about the first thing…" A sudden voice said.

Mina whipped her head around. The voice had come from her left, where she could see the silhouette of an unknown figure.

"He's smart, that one." The voice said. "Like all those other people I scared out of town, he knows when to quit. He knows when he beaten. And he knows who's responsible when it happens."

"Who are you?" Mina said.

"Glad you asked…" The figure stepped into view. Their appearance was odd, to say the least. It was a boy. He looked no older than either Star or Marco, with a head of ash-white hair and burning orange eyes that seemed to stare into Mina's soul.

"You're...you're him, aren't you?" Mina asked. "You're the stranger, my informant!"

"Correct." The figure said. "But "the stranger" is just a stupid nickname you gave me. You can call me...Bren."

Mina paused. "That's a stupid name." She said, after a moment of contemplation.

"Bren" sighed. "Well, that's also just a nickname. In my dimension's culture, the process of naming things and names in general are different then in this one. But I'm not here to talk about what. I'm here to talk about _you."_

"What do you mean? Mina asked.

"Simple." Bren said. "When I first arrived here, I saw you as a potential ally. We have the same enemies after all. I thought you could be useful. So I set myself up as your informant. To help you. And to help myself. But then I saw what you were. I heard about your failures. I heard about everything. I wasn't impressed. Quite the opposite in fact. You're incompetent."

"Incompetent?!" Mina said, her voice filled with rage. "My plans almost succeeded. For instance, back in Mewni, If it hadn't been for magic being destroyed, then the Solarians wouldn't have failed!"

"But they did fail." Bren said. "Because you took unnecessary time. When you want to destroy someone directly like you did with the Solarians, you don't give your enemy time to move against you. You don't wait for a response. You should have stormed that temple and killed them all if you really wanted them gone. You shouldn't have allowed any negotiations. That is how you destroy something with a head on assault. Granted, that's not really my style. I like to take my time and do it from behind the scenes for as long as possible. But that doesn't mean I don't know how to do it in other ways."

Mina almost couldn't contain herself. If it hadn't been for her broken leg, she would have charged at Bren in anger already.

"Just because that plan failed, that doesn't mean that the others would! If the police hadn't been tipped off about our plan, then we would have been able to assassinate Eclipsa." Mina said.

"True." Bren said. "But I was the one who gave you that plan. And I was also the one that ruined it, considering that I was the one who "tipped them off," as you put it."

"What?" Mina said. "YOU?! IT WAS YOU?!"

"Calm down." Bren said. "And yes, it was me. Why, you ask? It's simple. After you told me your baby plan a few days ago, I knew I had to get rid of you. You and your pathetic little group. I knew you would always fail after you told me your half-assed idea that you called a plan. So, I called the police last night and told them what you were going to do. Then I called _you _and convinced you to assassinate Eclipsa. It all fell into place. And like I hoped, you managed to evade arrest. But even if you didn't, it was the same outcome. Either way, I would have gotten rid of you. Well, _going _to get rid of you, now that we're here."

"What do you mean?" Mina asked, now slightly worried.

"Mina, did you really think I would reveal myself to you and then just allow your to get arrested and tell the police everything? When I show myself to the world, it's going to be at the right time. Which is definitely not now. I can't have you ruining everything I've worked for. Not when I'm so close."

"Close to what?" Mina asked.

Bren smiled. "Sorry, but I'm not even going to give you the privilege of knowing that. You're not good enough for it."

"Not good enough for it?!"

"Yeah. Not good enough. You see, Mina, I don't see you as being a threat to anything. Even if you had succeeded in some small victory over your enemies, they would still find you and stop you. You would never have been able to take over the town with that pathetic little group you had. So I just decided to speed things up."

"But why?" Mina asked. "So just because you thought I'm not good enough, you decided to pose as an informant and stop me?"

"_Thought _you weren't good enough? I still think it. You're not good enough to get your revenge on the Butterfly's. You don't really belong in this world. You...are a mistake Mina. Nothing more than an accidental mark of the pencil that must be erased. And that eraser shall be me."

"..."

"Hmm?" Bren said. "Nothing left to say? I should let you know, I really had hope in you at first. But just like everyone else, you disappoint me. Now I only have myself. But I suppose it's more fun that way."

"What side are you on?" Mina asked. "Are you for the monster? Or for the Mewmans? What is your end goal in any of this?"

"I already told you that you're not good enough to know what my end goal is. But as for your first question, I have quite a few sides. I am on the side of vengeance, honor...and even God. A god of flame."

"I don't care about your "God of flame!" Mina said. "I'm going to do exactly what I told to Manfred. I will cleanse this world of monsters, no matter what!"

"As interesting as that sounds," Bren said, "None of it will happen. Your plans will die with you Mina_."_

Mina nearly shook with rage at these words. "How dare you say that to me. You-you traitor! You're a traitor to me and to Mewni! I don't care how many sides you have, or what you think of me! Your nothing but an annoying piece of shit who I will defeat!"

Bren laughed. A long, echoing laugh. "Come now Mina, you have to admit, you're quite the piece of shit yourself. I mean, just look at you. Your so-called "army" was reduced to a bunch of low-life's, your solarian warriors have all failed, and your grand plan is to _kidnap a baby?!_ With all your talk of a monster-free Mewni, a paradise for Mewmans everywhere, you managed to screw this up pretty well, didn't you?"

Mina lunged at Bren in pure rage, but she forgot about her broken leg, and she stumbled over and fell to the floor.

Bren looked down at Mina and shook his head. "Exactly what I expected of you. But I think it's time to wrap this up. You're useless to me now."

He took a match out of his pocket. "You see, the wall, ceiling, floor, and other every single surface is coated with an invisible, impossible-to-detect substance that I made myself. It's also extremely flammable. It'll burn until there's nothing left of the material it's burning. It took months to create. But it'll all pay off in the end. So now, you get the honor of being the first person killed by it."

Mina looked at him, and for the first time in her life, she felt truly and utterly afraid. "How did you-"

"I did it a few days ago." Bren responded. "After you told me your baby plan. I realized that it would fail. It was then that I realized that you would _always _fail. I've planned this for a long time, and I don't need you getting in the middle and screwing it up. Do you know how long it took me to create that substance? Earth chemistry is so complicated, but at the same time, fascinating. I gave this "science" a chance, and it worked great for me. I think if you had given it a chance as well, instead of just sticking to your guns and doing pointless plans that were obviously going to fail, you might have succeeded in some small way. But that didn't happen, did it?"

Mina didn't say anything. She could only listen to the words that he was saying.

"With the right materials, I could build a bomb that could take out this entire town. I could destroy everything. But...I don't want that. I want to savor my victory. When the world burns, one town at a time, I will be there watching it. I'll start with this one. The one with the Butterfly. She took away my dimension, so I'll take away hers."

He struck the match again the wall, igniting it.

"Goodbye."

Mina's eyes widened as he dropped it. He quickly stepped out of the room into the doorway, excluding himself from the danger zone.

Mina scream in rage at him as everything caught fire, as everything suffered under the flames.

Bren watched her burn until she finally stopped moving, then walked out of the doorway and the building, with no care for its sole inhabitant, leaving her to be turned to ash.

"Well then." He said.

"Time to go catch a butterfly."

**A/N: And we finally get a name and a look at our big baddie. I hope I wrote him well, and I can't wait to write his backstory and why he's doing all this. It's gonna be fun.**

**And it took much longer than it should have to decide on a name. **


	6. Chapter 6: Meeting madness, part 1

**Aflame **

**Chapter 6**

**Meeting madness, part 1**

Nobody liked going to the meetings of the Earthni high council.

Not even the Earthni high council.

But who could blame them? The meetings happened constantly, were drawn-out like a bad movie that just wouldn't end, and were usually only about things that were important to a single kingdom. But the rules demanded that the monarchs of all the kingdoms attend, so attend they did.

Also, it was held in the monster temple, and most if not all of the other monarchs hated that.

First up was seeing who attended and who didn't. Then whatever reason the meeting came to pass would be discussed. It would be discussed until there was nothing left to discuss. This was usually a long process, and to the monarchs (and everyone else, really) it was mind numbing.

But one must do things properly.

**Members in attendance based on location and/or position:**

Ruling Duumvirate: Mayor of Echo Creek, Queen Eclipsa Butterfly

Butterfly Kingdom : Star, River, and Moon Butterfly.

Cloud kingdom: King Ponyhead, and Princess Ponyhead.

Forest of unlikely Spiderbites: Spiderbites: King, Queen, and Princess Penelope Spiderbite.

Jaggy mountains: King, Queen, and Princess Jaggy.

Johansen Kingdom: Queen Johansen.

Pigeon Kingdom: Rich pigeon.

**Other:**

Yvgeny Bulgolyubov (Buff frog)- Monster-Mewman ambassador.

Marco Diaz- Former Royal squire, possible future prince.

Globgor- Ruler of Monsters.

Shawn- Stenographer.

**Members not present:**

Waterfolk: King and Queen of the Waterfolk. (Currently attempting to board random fishing boats.)

Lucitors: Dave, Wraithmelior, and Thomas Lucitor.

Johansens: King and Princess Johansen.

With everyone present attended for, Eclipsa cleared her throat and started talking.

"Alright. With that out of the way, let the...57th? Yes. 57th official meeting of the Earthni high council come to ord-" She said, before being interrupted by Shawn's loud typing, courtesy of his typewriter.

Moon sighed at the noise, starting to getting flashbacks of Eclipsa's trial. "Again, Shawn? Eclipsa, weren't you going to get him one of those computer things?" She asked.

"We were." Eclipsa responded. "But we had trouble getting a good source of...wifey, I think it was called?"

"WiFi." Marco corrected.

"Yes. That." Eclipsa said. "We couldn't get a good source, so we have to stick with the typewriter. Shawn, try to keep it down."

Shawn nodded and start typing again, but this time slower than usual.

"Now then." Eclipsa said. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I called you all to this meeting."

"First off," Queen Spiderbite said, getting up from her chair. "Where are the Lucitors? Why do _they _get to skip this meeting?" All the other royals nodded in agreement with this. They wanted nothing more than to leave.

"Umm…" Star said. "Tom said that he and his family were going on a vacation somewhere in the Underworld, and he should be back by now. But I guess he's not."

Queen Spiderbite grumbled in response to this and went back to sitting down. "Probably just an excuse to skip this meeting." She mumbled.

"As I was saying…" Eclipsa said. "The reason I called you all to this meeting is that I thought it would be wise to inform that Mina Loveberry has...died, and we should discuss what comes next for Mewni due to her death.

All the monarchs perked up at this news. "Oh. That's...unfortunate." Rich pigeon said, entirely unsympathetic.

"Don't act like it's any kind of tragedy." Eclipsa said. "Because I'm not either. Although Mina was once a great warrior of Mewni, you all saw how she went off the deep end. As much as I don't like saying it, her death was...probably for the better."

"How did she die?" Moon asked.

"Burning." Eclipsa responded. "After her little assassination attempt at my life failed and Star and Marco got my child back, the Echo creek police chased her to her base, which was an abandoned building. Unfortunately, when they got there, the building was already covered in flames. We found what was left of Mina inside. We're not sure if it was an accident, or if somebody deliberately killed her."

"What about her posse?" King Jaggy asked. "I heard that she had a bunch of Mewmans and humans working for her."

"They're in jail." Eclipsa responded. "Any of them that weren't at the monster temple when they tried to kill me were arrested soon after Mina died. We found my former servant Manfred, and he just gave up all the addresses and locations in exchange for not going to jail. I suspect that by the end, he didn't even want to be part of Mina's group."

"Well...what if Manfred set the fire?" Penelope suggested. "You did say that he didn't want to be part of Mina's group."

"The police have confirmed that he didn't do it." Eclipsa said. "We know that he went with Mina back to her base, but left soon after without her. By the time the police got to the building, he was far away enough and it had been burning for too short a time for him to have lit it. Also, he apparently passed something called a lie-detector test, so we believe that he had nothing to do with the fire."

"Why did you call this meeting again?" Queen Johansen asked Eclipsa, diverting the topic. "Why didn't you just send a messenger to inform us of Mina's death? I don't see why you needed us here."

"Well," Eclipsa said. "That's not the only reason I called this meeting."

"What's the other reason?" She asked.

"Star? Would you like to explain?" Eclipsa asked, looking over at Star.

"Yeah." Star said. She stood up, and now had the full attention of the room. All eyes were on her, and she took a deep breath as she prepared to speak.

"Okay." She said. "Now, as you all know, in an attempt to get to Eclipsa, Mina stole her daughter. In the process she attacked and heavily injured my friend Janna. I met with her in the hospital, and she gave me what I guess could be interpreted as a...warning."

"What kind of warning?" Rich pigeon asked.

"Well, she said that she had been hearing rumors. Rumors that there was somebody that appeared in town. That everybody was afraid of. To the point that some people were leaving."

"Somebody new?" Moon said. "What do you mean dear? Who is it?"

"I don't know." Star said. "But Janna suspected that they were behind the baby kidnapping, not Mina. And I saw people leaving firsthand. While me and Marco were searching for the babies, we decided to ask Janna's friend Needles first, because we thought he would be a good start."

"Who's Needles?" Several people asked.

"Oh, he's a guy that part of the knitting Underworld in the town."

"What, like a criminal?"

"No, not like a criminal, more like...umm...you know what, sure, why not." Star said, wanting to get back on topic.

"But anyway," She said. "He knew where the babies were, and told us the location, but by writing it down secretly."

"Meaning…" Queen Jaggy said, expecting more.

Star sighed. "Meaning that he was too scared to even say where they were aloud. Like whoever this was was listening in on the conversation. It said that there "were ears everywhere".

"If that's true, then should we even be having this meeting right now?" King Ponyhead asked, worried. "What if whoever it is is listening in to this meeting?"

"I doubt that." Eclipsa said. "We always check for any type of hidden listening devices before every meeting, ever since we heard they existed. We don't want anybody knowing what we all say here. Unless they were hiding somewhere in this room, I don't see how they could successfully listen in to what we're saying in here."

"Even so," Star said. "Make sure to watch your words when you leave. I have a feeling that Needles was terrified in that moment, but he just didn't show it. Then he left. He said he didn't have anywhere to go, but he left anyway. He was that afraid. Everybody is afraid."

The Mayor, who had been quiet the whole time, spoke up at this news. "So, You're telling me that there is somebody in this town, who even the criminal underworld is scared of?"

"Yeah." Star said. "That's exactly what I'm saying. I got both Janna and Needles confirmation with this fact, so I think it's safe to say that exactly what's happening."

"Well then." The Mayor said. "Anybody here have any ideas on who it could be? Because I got nothing if it's somebody from Mewni."

"I think I have an idea." Rich pigeon said. "I'm betting it was that little green monster Ludo."

"What?" Star said incredulously. "Why would you think that he-"

"Why are you defending him?" Rich interrupted. "Didn't he take over your kingdom? Steal the Royal book of spells and then destroy it?"

"Well, yeah. But he's changed now. The few times I've seen him, I noticed that he's not like how he was before. I don't think he even cares about me anymore."

"Still," Rich said. "I think we have a possible candidate. I've heard of the things that little beaked monster has done, and I'm sure that scaring people and burning down things is exactly what he would do!"

"Okay, no!" Star yelled. "First off, Janna and Needles said it was somebody new that was scaring everybody. Ludo is definitely not new. Secondly, Janna also said that she suspects that whoever it was, was also the mastermind for Mina's baby plan. It would make no sense for someone like Mina to team up with a monster. She would never team up with Ludo! Finally, I don't think Ludo is even capable of scaring people enough that he's making them leave the town. Not when he doesn't have any magic or anything like that!"

The entire room sat silently.

"Excuse me." Buff frog said, standing up. "I have an opinion as well. I agree with Star Butterfly. I know Ludo. I have seen him at his best and worst, because I once worked for him. After all I have seen, I can say with certainty that after seeing him just yesterday, he is at his best. Ludo...would not do this. Not now."

Everybody in the room took this in for a moment, but it was obvious that nobody was agreeing with it.

"So...you're defending him as well?" Queen Johansen asked.

"No." Buff Frog said. "I am merely stating facts. Also, Ludo is monster. And like Star said, Mina would never work with any monster."

"Well, maybe Mina didn't know who it was." Queen Spiderbite interjected. "Maybe Ludo was just telling her information through notes or something like that."

Upon seeing that nobody had listened to a word of what either she or Buff Frog said, Star groaned, sat back down, and buried her face in her hands. 'This is just an excuse to leave the meeting earlier.' She thought to herself. 'They just picked someone that they knew had caused trouble in the past and said that he did it. They're not thinking this out.'

Eclipsa, tired of seeing this argument, spoke up. "Very well. If everybody thinks Ludo did it, then we'll go investigate him. Star, Marco, go over to the monster district or wherever it is that he lives and...ask him some questions? I'm sure you can tell if he's telling the truth or not. I'd send either the police or the royal knights, but I don't think he did it either." Eclipsa said this with noticeable annoyance, almost certainly directed at the other royals.

Star sat up and looked at Eclipsa. "Fine. We'll go after this meeting is over."

"Which it is now?" Rich asked. "Now that we've discussed everything?"

Eclipsa, not wanting to get into an argument with the royals, waved her hand. "Sure." She said. "You can go."

Almost instantly the entire room got up from their chairs and left. Star watched them go with disdain.

'Ugh.' She thought. 'They're not even taking this seriously. This could be a real problem, but all they care about is going home. I should talk to Eclipsa about giving them complete reign over their kingdoms. Ever since her and the mayor took over, they haven't really gotten to do anything, and now they've gotten lazy.'

"Hey." Marco said, breaking Star out of her thoughts. "Are we going to go?"

"Yeah. But don't hurry. Seriously, if Ludo is actually the one behind this, I don't know what I'll do."

"Well, at least we have permission to go investigate something this time. Even if nobody was mad at us last time."

Star laughed. "You think so? The police certainly had a lot to say. You were right you know. About the whole "three hour talk on why trying to solve crimes by yourself is wrong." That's something I won't forget for a while."

"Hey girl!" A sudden extremely cheerful voice said.

Star looked to her left and saw Ponyhead float up to her.

"Oh, hey Ponyhead!" Star said. "It's nice to see you again."

"Yeah, but under terrible circumstances." Ponyhead responded. "This whole Mina thing is crazy. Those royals are crazy. They seriously think that that little green goblin is responsible for this. I was just about ready to leave."

"I really think that Mina-" Marco started, before being interrupted by Ponyhead.

"Conversation between me and Star only Earth turd!" She said. "Don't interrupt!"

Marco, too tired to try and argue with Ponyhead, shut his mouth reluctantly with a look of defeat.

"Alright good. Now, Star, I got something else to say. I heard what happened to your other Earth friend Janna or whatever, and I just wanna say, my condolences. I promise I will help in anyway to find whoever this new person is that's freaking everybody out."

"Awww." Star said. "Thanks Ponyhead, that's really-"

"Not right now!" Ponyhead interjected. "I can't do anything right now. I have a new episode of the Ponyhead show to make. All the people in this town are loving it! I even got a deal with a late-night show host to talk about it! I'm gonna be famous!"

"Good for you Ponyhead." Star said. "But are you sure you don't want to come with us? We could use your help."

Marco quickly shot Star a look that said that they definitely didn't need her help, but she ignored it.

"What, with you and Earth turd? No thanks, even if I had the time. Besides, I've heard stories about that little goblin, and I don't want to meet him, even if you and the frog said he was cool now or whatever."

"Oh. Well, I guess I'll see you later." Star said.

"Yeah girl." Ponyhead said. "Don't do anything crazy without me." With that, Ponyhead floated out of the room.

Star sighed and walked over to Buff frog, who was watching the royals leave with a dismal expression.

"Thanks for trying to help me Buff frog." She said. "Even if they didn't believe it. I don't really like Ludo, but I definitely know that he didn't do this."

"Yes. But I had a feeling that they wouldn't listen to me. I am a monster, and they still don't trust monster, even after everything." Buff frog said.

Star shook her head. "We really need to do something about that."

"I agree. But now is not the time, What with everything else going on. But like I said, Ludo is odd and can be...unstable, but this is not what he does. Are you still going over to the ruins of that castle? I believe that's where he lives.

"I guess I have too. But who knows, maybe Ludo will know something about whoever _really _killed Mina. Like Needles."

"Just be careful. Ludo is back with some of his monster friends. The same ones you beat up countless times. I don't think they'll be happy to see you. Or karate boy."

"I'll keep it in mind." Star said. "Although I'm sure me and Marco can take them down if they do decide to attack us. I doubt they've changed much from when we last saw them."

"Indeed." Buff frog said. "I have to go. Cornball game between monster and Mewman children is going on soon. Can't miss it with little Katrina playing."

Star smiled. "Make sure to say hi to her for me."

"I will." Buff frog then left, followed by Shawn, the mayor, Moon, Eclipsa, and River. After that, Star and Marco were the only ones left.

"You don't want to talk to your mom?" Marco asked.

"Maybe later." Star said. "But I'm trying not to. I discovered that if she doesn't come up and talk to me before I do, then she doesn't want to talk to me at the moment. Which is...most moments."

"Geez. She's still being reclusive, isn't she?" Marco said. "After six months. And to her own family."

"Well, What would you do if you were almost single handedly responsible for that Solarian incident? Which then led to the destruction of magic having to happen. She blames herself for everything. I know I would…"

"As would I," Marco said. "But let's not think about that. Let's go visit Ludo. Go say hi. Ask some questions. If he's really behind it, then I feel like it won't be difficult to find out."

"Yeah." Star said. "Let's go."

They left the meeting room and the monster temple, walking down to the street below.

"So Ludo lives at that castle now, right?" Marco asked. "Castle Avarius?"

"Mmm Hmm. I think they're trying to fix that place up. Luckily, the merge between Mewni and Earth moved the castle closer to the monster temple. So I don't think it should be too far away."

"...Is there any part of you that thinks he did it?" Marco asked. "Just being honest, I'm wondering myself. I don't think he did it, but you never know."

"No." Star responded. "No, I don't think he did it. First off, I don't know if Ludo even knows about Mina at all. He wasn't there when she attacked the monster temple back on Mewni, and I don't think he's had any interactions with her."

"I mean, she had been on the news several times before that. As well as several WANTED posters." Marco said. "He could have seen one of those."

"And then decided that the best solution was to burn Mina alive? I don't think so. That's not how he does things. He would probably try and capture her with that giant spider he rides around, or send his monsters to do it for him. Buff frog did say that he made friends with several of his old monster lackeys."

"I'm surprised they survived his castle blowing up. I wonder how Lobster claws is doing. Or how any of them are doing. What jobs would they even have now?" Marco asked.

"Probably the same jobs they had before: Serving someone."

Star and Marco walked silently the rest of the way, until they finally turned a corner that led to the castle.

"Alright, here we…"

"Are."

Both teens stopped and stared at the "castle", which didn't even resemble a castle anymore. The towers were gone, as well as the gigantic walls. It more resembles a large stone mansion than a proper castle. There were two giant metal doors that led inside, with a small door slot in one of them.

"Wow," Marco said, impressed. "They really cleaned this place up. Last time we were here it was in complete ruins. But now…"

Marco trailed off, and Star grabbed his arm and started walking up to the door.

"Let's get this over with." She said. "I'm sure that Ludo won't be any happier to see us than we will."

"Yeah. Right."

Both of them strode up to the door, and Star grabbed one of the gigantic knockers and banged on the door three times. A few moments passed, and then the door slot opened and Star could see two yellow eyes inside it.

"Who is it?" A gruff voice said.

Star was puzzled. That...was not Ludo's voice.

"Um, I'm Star Butterfly and this is Marco. Who-who are you?" She asked in confusion.

The person on the other side of the door gave a huff of annoyance and then spoke. "I am Lord Brudo. Head of the Avarius family and ruler of this castle."

"Oh...have you seen Ludo?" Star asked.

"Ludo?!" Brudo said. "Don't speak to me about him. We finally managed to kick him out of this castles and get our ancestral home back. Although we had to rebuild it to resemble an Earth house after some complaints from the construction crew. Apparently they didn't know what they were doing, so we had to change the look."

"Okay, yeah, that's great." Marco said. "Listen, do you know where Ludo is?"

Brudo's eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to know about him?"

"Well...Mina loveberry died recently, and the Mewnian high commission believes it was Ludo. We're trying to find him to prove the commission wrong. We don't think it was him."

"Hmph! Well, I kicked him out of this place. Served him right for kicking _us _out all those years ago. We got the property deed by tricking I'm into giving it to us, and now he's living somewhere else."

"Where?" Star asked.

"Some house. Looks like it's made of garbage. Apparently he built it with the help of his monsters to resemble his old house when he was stuck in "the void." Don't know what that means. If you're looking for it, it's in the forest of certain death, where my family's old house used to be."

"Alright. Thanks for your help." Star said.

Eager to leave, both teens teens turned to leave, but Brudo stopped them.

"Hey…" He said. "What else do you know? I'm curious about who whole Mina thing. What happened there? Who else was she working with?"

"Oh, she kidnapped Eclipsa daughter and Marco's sister In an attempt to get monster to leave. But I think she changed her plans and then tried to assassinate Eclipsa, and that failed."

"And everybody she worked with?"

"In jail." Marco said. "Well, except for Manfred and maybe somebody else?"

"Somebody else?" Brudo asked, his eyebrow raised.

"Yeah. Apparently there's somebody that scaring a bunch of people that our friend Janna thought was really behind the whole baby kidnapping, so we're also looking for them."

With no warning, Brudo quickly closed the door slot.

"Okay...that was weird." Star said.

"He probably just wanted to know the details." Marco said. "I doubt a guy like that leaves his house much. Let's go."

Both Star and Marco left, heading towards the forest of certain death, where hopefully they would have better luck.

**Inside castle Avarius…**

With Star and Marco gone, Brudo practically ran towards his private drawer that held the item he was looking for. Unlocking it with a key he took out of his pocket, he grabbed the small black device, checked to make sure nobody was around, and pressed the button on it.

A faint ringing sound was heard, and a second later, a voice answered.

"Yes?"

Brudo didn't hesitate. "The Butterfly knows about you." He said. "She knows that somebody is scaring everybody and that you were working with Loveberry."

The voice on the other side made a "tch" sound and continued talking.

"How?" They asked.

"From what I heard, she got the information from a friend of hers called Janna."

"Hmm. I should have told Mina to kill that girl. The fool left her alive when she stole those babies. I should have known that someone like Janna would know about me."

"So what now?" Brudo asked.

"You do what I told you to do, and _don't screw it up._ You saw what happened with Mina. I'd hate to have to do that with you too Avarius."

"Of course Bren." Brudo said. "And in return…"

"You'll get your revenge on your son. I know how much you despise him. I promise you'll get your chance."

"And…"

"Yes yes, you'll get your lifetime supply of scratch-and-sniff stickers."

"Good. I'll talk to you later once I get the chance."

"I will be looking forward to it." A small "click" was heard, and Brudo put the device back in the drawer, grabbed a sheet of stickers, then sat down in his chair.

"Ahh." He said, before looking at his family portrait, with Ludo at the bottom.

"You'll get what's coming to you boy." He said. "You will suffer what we have suffered for ruining this family name."

"This I promise."

**End chapter 6**

**A/N: Well, Brudo is working with Bren, how's that gonna play out for him? And he doesn't want to kill Ludo, just make him suffer for "ruining" the Avarius family name with his hijinks.**

**I don't think he'll get very far though…**

**It might seem that a lot of people are working for Bren, but remember that Needles said "there are ears everywhere" for a reason.**

**Until next time.**


	7. Chapter 7: Ludo, We Found thou

**Aflame **

**Chapter 7**

**Ludo, We Found thou**

With a brand new lead given to them by Brudo, Star and Marco walked away from mansion Avarius and entered the streets of the city.

"So, the forest of certain death, huh?" Marco said as they walked along. "Haven't they cleaned that place out?"

"Yup." Star said. "After the mayor decided that it was too dangerous to just be left there, I believe he hired a bunch of people to basically come in and burn everything. It looked like a horror movie. They came in with hazmat suits and everything."

"Did they succeed?" Marco asked.

"I think so." Star said. " I'm pretty sure they managed to kill most of the giant people eating plants and other things like that. I stopped paying attention after a while though. A few days into the cleanup, there were still no signs of it stopping. It got kind of boring. Although I suppose that if Ludo lives there, then they had to have cleaned it out a lot."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Marco said. "Remember that Ludo lived in a chip bag for months. I don't think he's going to be bothered by bad living standards."

Star stopped walking and burst out laughing at this. "He did, didn't he? I can't believe I'm just remembering how ridiculous he looked. Couldn't really care at the time though, because of all the other stuff he was doing."

"And then he grew a beard?" Marco said, laughing along with Star. "With all the wrinkles he already had, it made him look like eighty years old!"

"I know!" Star said. "Oh! Then there was the time that-"

"I'm right behind you you know." A voice from behind them said.

Star and Marco whipped around and there was Ludo, a bag of groceries in one hand, riding his giant spider and wearing a pink bathrobe.

"While I'm used to it by now," He said. "And I would probably expect out of you two after all I've done, I'd prefer it if you didn't insult me in public."

"Oh, um, Sorry." Star said. "We were actually looking for you."

Ludo tilted his head. "What? Why would you go looking for me? What did I do this time?"

"Hopefully nothing." Marco said. "Listen, I know we haven't always been...on the best of terms, but we need your help. A lot of things have been happening lately and the Mewnian high council...sent us to investigate you in case you were behind them."

"Hm." Ludo said. "The Mewnian high council? Alright then. Follow me if you want. We'll discuss it at my house. It's not often I get visitors, and there are too many prying ears in the streets."

Ludo slapped the back of his spider, who moved forward pass Star and Marco, who shrugged and followed him, confused as to why he seemingly didn't care about them.

"So...where's your bird?" Star asked, in some attempt to be friendly. She wasn't, and had never been anything close to "friends" with Ludo, but if they wanted to get information out of him, then she had to try and be friendly.

"Who?" Ludo asked. He then looked at the sky for a few seconds and then seemed to remember. "Oh, right. Almost forgot that thing existed. She's at my house. Guarding it. With it being in the forest of certain death, you can never be too careful."

"I though they cleaned the forest out of anything dangerous." Marco said.

"They did." Ludo responded. "But as you got deeper into the forest, the more dangerous it got. They eventually abandoned the project after the only solution that wouldn't result in casualties for the people clearing it out would be to do something called "firebombing." Which apparently, they didn't have access to the tools necessary to do that."

"Yeah, I can't imagine why…" Marco said sarcastically.

Ludo ignored or either didn't hear the comment and kept talking. "So they just left it as it was and declared it condemned. Didn't stop me though. Because they don't know I live there, I don't have to pay tax on the land. I don't have to pay anything. Which reminds me, you're going to have to sneak in."

"Got it." Star said.

The next few minutes were set in an awkward silence, with Ludo continuing on with his spider and Star and Marco following him, before Marco leaned over towards Star.

"This is so weird." He whispered. "How long ago was it when this guy took over Mewni?" He gestured at Ludo, then continued talking.

"How long ago was it when we blew up his castle? When you threw him into the void? When he asked you to throw him back into the void?"

"To be fair Marco." Star whispered back. "It's only been a year or so. Maybe a year and a half. It's been a while, yeah, but it hasn't been _that _long. And where are you going with this anyway?"

Marco sighed. "I mean just look at how much he's changed. He's completely fine with us. He doesn't care at all. I'm surprised just how much he's okay with us. I'm actually surprised just how much you're okay with it."

"Well, I think I kinda understand that he doesn't want to take over Mewni or steal the now non-existent wand or anything, so I guess don't mind him anymore." Star said. "Even after all the things that happened."

"I can hear you perfectly fine." Ludo said. "You two are terrible whisperers."

"Oh." Marco said. "Sorrrry...maybe?"

"No, it's fine." Ludo said. "You're right anyways. I'm a new person. A new Ludo Avarius. No more plots to take over Mewni. No more plots to steal magical artifacts, because they don't exist anymore. And last but certainly not least, no more plots to destroy you two! I have a new home, a new place, to start over."

"We visited your dad, and he told us that you were kicked out of your old castle and built a new one out of garbage." Star said.

Ludo immediately grumbled and his shoulders dropped. "Well yes, there was that." Ludo said, disdain coating his every word. "Father tricked me into giving him possession over the castle and he kicked me out. But I don't need the castle. Father can stay in that dusty old home with his stickers and that old crone mother!"

"You...really hate your family, don't you?" Marco asked.

Ludo shook his head. "I only don't like my mother and father. They never supported me. Even after I kicked them out of the house to make room for my monsters, and then gave them a new house, were they grateful? No!"

Star and Marco exchanged glances, unsure of what to make of what Ludo just said.

"But I still have my siblings." Ludo continued. "Fudo, Mudo, Dudo, Crudo...and Dennis. All of them have been helpful! I never thought I needed their help before, but when I did, I realized it was easy as just asking them for it."

"That's nice...I guess." Star said. "But what about your monsters? Your dad told us that they...still work for you or something?"

"Not true." Ludo said. "After father kicked me out, I had to let them go. My new house isn't big enough to accommodate them, and I don't have the money necessary to feed them, as I already have myself, and my spider and the bird to take care of."

"Where are they now?" Marco asked.

"I don't know. Probably doing what they do best: Following the orders of someone else."

Star was about to ask another question, but before she could they arrived at the forest.

It looked relatively similar to when Star and Marco had last seen it, if not slightly smaller. All the plants and animals were still there, and the entire place was fenced off, with several signs on the fence marked "CONDEMNED." The top of the fence had barbed wire wrapped around it.

"Here we are". Ludo said. "Well, almost. We just have to get past the fence, and we'll be in."

All four of them walked along the side of the fence until they reached a large hole. It looked like it had been forcefully made, likely by Ludo himself.

"This is it." Ludo said. "Get in."

Both teens walked through the hole and Ludo followed them through. He then had his spider seal up the hole with silk.

"Can't be too careful." He said. "I don't want anybody to get in here that I don't know about."

"I don't think it would take a lot to break through that silk." Marco said.

Ludo cackled at this. "Are you sure? That webbing can sustain a lot. And with the barbed wire serving as extra protection, it's rather hard to get in here."

"Fine. Whatever you say." Marco said.

"Good! Now come along." Ludo said, climbing back on top of the spider, which then moved forward.

Star and Marco once again followed him and entered the forest. Every few feet there were several burn marks covering the ground and random trees, the end result of the attempt to clean the forest.

Seeing how Star and Marco were likely about to ask him about the burn marks, Ludo spoke up.

"Unfortunate, isn't it?" He said. "Just so it would be safe for the general public, I believe that several species of plants were exterminated. There are still dozens more, but still, it's a waste. Especially since it was closed off forever."

Star and Marco didn't have anything to say to this, and just kept walking. A few minutes later, they arrived at their destination. It was a house, just like Brudo said. But also like Brudo said, it did look like it was made of garbage. The walls and roof were all are of different materials, as if someone had taken several houses and mashed them together into some monstrosity. On the very top of the house, Ludo's eagle sat, waiting for his return.

"Home sweet home." Ludo said.

"This...is where you live?" Star asked.

"I know it doesn't look like much, but it's what I have. I'm actually very used to living in such poor conditions, if not poorer."

The eagle, upon seeing them arrive, flew down to the ground. Ludo rummaged around in his grocery bag, pulled out a fish and then tossed it to the eagle, who ate it.

"There you go!" He said, and the muttered, "My bird who for some reason I can hardly remember."

The eagle squawked loudly and flew back up towards the house onto it's perch, and Ludo and the others entered the house. The spider stayed outside, and Ludo grabbed a bowl and shook a god awful amount of bugs out of his beard and into the bowl. He then gave it to the spider, who started eating it faster than a preschooler with crayons.

"And there's your supper!" Ludo said. "Now I'm going inside and chatting with my...guests."

Star and Marco watched this unfold with disgust, and Marco looked like he might throw up.

"Okay. That's gross." Star said.

"Hey!" Ludo said, hearing her. "I have to find some way to feed her. She doesn't complain, I don't complain, nobody complains. Except you, apparently. Now, are we going to keep talking or are we going to go inside?"

"We were actually planning on talking insi-" Marco said before being interrupted.

"Good! Then go in."

Both of them slowly went inside the house, unsure if it was a smart decision. When they finally got inside, they regretted ever entering.

The inside of the house was easily the dingiest place either of them had ever seen. There was garbage everywhere, along with several bugs that were prowling around. The smell was almost unbearable, and was like three day-old cheese mixed with hand sanitizer and then slathered in 20 year old ranch dressing.

"Pretty sweet deal, huh?" Ludo said. "Built it myself. Granted, it took a while. But it was all worth it in the end."

Ludo walked over to a record player resting on a gigantic pile of clothes, and turned it on. What sounded like classical music started coming out of it.

"Is this Chopin?" Marco asked.

"Chop-what?" Ludo asked. "I don't know who that is, but I found a bunch of these "records", and now playing them is the highlight of my day."

He then set the bag of groceries down on some random broken table and sat down on an old couch sitting in the corner.

"Now that I'm comfortable," He said. "What do you want? Why do you want to talk to me?"

Star straightened up.'"Alright, Listen." She said. "A lot of things have happened recently. Do you know about Mina Loveberry? The Solarian who tried to teal over Mewni?"

"I _heard _about her." Ludo said. "But I never actually saw her. I was at my castle when the whole Solarian incident went down. Dennis later told me what happened. As well as why magic was destroyed and Mewni was now merged with Earth."

"Well, ever since Mewni was merged with Earth, Mina had been gaining followers again, and she was kind of a nuisance since then."

"_Was _a nuisance?" Ludo asked, now paying slightly more attention to Star's words. "Did something happen to her?"

"Well." Star said. "She kinda, ummm…"

"She's dead". Marco said. "She died a few days ago."

"What?!" Ludo exclaimed, jumping off his couch. "I mean, not that I really care about her, but what killed her? Who did it?"

"She was burned to death." Marco continued. "After being abandoned by Manfred, and after all her followers were arrested."

"And...who did it?" Ludo asked.

Star took a deep breath. "Well…we don't know. But that's kind of the reason we're here. See, the Mewnian high council thinks _you _did it."

"WHAT?!" Ludo repeated, much louder this time. "Me?! Ludo Avarius, a killer?!"

"I mean, you did try to kill us multiple times in the past. Along with several other people." Marco said.

"Yeah, but that was a different Ludo! Like I said earlier, like _you _said earlier, I'm a new person. No more evil plans, no more nothing! I had nothing to do with Mina's death."

"We know." Star said. "We don't believe you did it. In fact, I'm positive that the only reason they suggested that you did it is so that they could leave the meeting earlier. But we had to start somewhere, and they told us to, so we went looking for you."

Ludo started pacing around while grumbling. Eventually, he walked over to a random door and opened it.

"I need a moment to think about this." He said, before slamming the door shut.

Both Star and Marco stared at the door for a few moments, then Marco sighed.

"I'm going to look around this place." He said. "Make sure there's nothing suspicious. I want to see if he's telling the truth about "no more evil plans." He might not have killed Mina, but I want to see if he truly is a new person."

"Yeah." Star said. "Good idea."

Both of them started looking around the house. But it was all basically just the same thing over and over: Garbage, giant piles of trash, and the occasional bag of groceries, some of which seemed rotten.

Finally, Marco opened a closet and was met with two shadow covered figures standing inside, an inch from his face.

"GAH!" He said, leaping back and taking a karate stance.

Star ran over. "What is it? Are you okay? Are you-" She said, before noticing the two figures.

However, instead of freaking out, she simply laughed.

"They're not real Marco. They're just dummies. That's one head is a balloon for Mewnis sake."

Marco once again took a normal stance and inspected the dummies. "They freaked me out, okay?! They were really close to the door. And why are they even here anyways?"

"Hm. That is odd." Star said. "Well, maybe it's just...wait. Don't these dummies look kind of…"

"Familiar?" Marco said, realization hitting him in the face.

Familiar indeed. One closely resembled Star, being a pink balloon with yellow confetti for hair, all while connected to a vase. The other one was a watermelon with a face drawn on it with a brown wig, being held up by a large red garbage bag, similar to Marco's hoodie.

"Are those dummies supposed to be us?" Marco asked nervously.

"Maybeeee?" Star said.

They both looked at the dummies for a moment.

Marco quickly closed the door. "Let's just...never speak of this again, okay?"

"Good idea." Star said. "Erasing that from my mind...right now."

They both left the closet with the dummies behind and continued inspecting the house, (and being slightly more careful than before) but still didn't find anything of worth. They both walked back into the room they had first entered the house from.

"Ugh." Marco said. "This was a waste of time, wasn't it? We didn't accomplish anything."

"That's not true." Star said. "We kind of proved Ludo didn't do it. Beside common sense already proving it, we looked around his house, and there was nothing that suggested he had anything to do with Mina's death."

"I guess. Still, we could have used this time to do something else." He looked over at the record player, which was still playing music. "And that song is getting on my nerves."

He walked over and turned it off, causing it to go silent.

"Now, we can-" He stopped. He looked around for a second, as if he had just heard something.

"Are you okay?" Star asked.

"Don't you hear that?" Marco said.

"I don't hear anything." Star said. "What are you talking about?"

"Just listen!"

"I-" Star started, but then she heard what Marco was talking about. It sounded like...voices? The music that had been playing must have covered up the noises.

"Those are voices. Several voices." Star said.

Marco nodded. "Yeah, and I have a hunch where they're coming from…" He looked over at the door that Ludo had entered earlier.

Marco slowly walked up to the door, while Star followed close behind him. He grabbed the handle and opened it, revealing an old, wooden staircase with a sharp right turn near the bottom.

"Yeah, that's not suspicious at all." Star said.

"Somebody tell me this isn't real". Marco said. "Because I really don't want to go down there."

"Same." Star said, before pushing past Marco and going down one of the steps. "But you know we have to."

Marco but his lip as he followed Star, and the both of them went down the stairs, taking care to not cause any creaking. The voices continued getting louder, and Star could swear that some of them seemed awfully familiar.

'I think I hear Ludo.' She thought to herself. 'And maybe a few others? I just hope that this ends well.'

After descending a few more steps, the pair reached the sharp corner in the staircase, revealing a large room at the bottom. Both Star and Marco froze, and everybody in the room turned their way.

The room in question was a very large basement with stone walls and with an unswept, concrete floor. There was a large table in the middle of the room, with several simple wooden chairs surrounding it. On the walls were maps, diagrams, and various pieces of paper. Several of which noticeably had blueprints for Mina's DMV hideout.

But most troubling of all were the people sitting around the table. Buff frog was at its head, with Ludo, Slime, Penelope Spiderbite, Rasticore, Dennis, and a plethora of other monsters (and a few Mewmans and humans) that Star didn't recognize making up the rest.

Everybody looked at Star and Marco, who were still frozen in place, unsure of what to do.

Star's instincts took over and she immediately turned to run, but Buff frog stopped her.

"Star Butterfly, wait!" He said. "I don't know what you're thinking, but it is not what it looks like."

Star turned back around and faced him. "Then what is it supposed to look like?!" She asked. "Because from what I can see, with the diagrams and plans on the walls, I'm pretty sure that you guys were the ones that killed Mina! What even is this anyway?!"

Buff frog took a deep breath. "I know. I know. It looks bad. Please trust me though. We did not kill Mina. We had nothing to do with that."

"Then...then what is this?" Marco asked, looking from face to face.

"We are...freedom fighters." Buff frog said. "Every since Mina started causing trouble in town, we have gathered together, all of us, at Ludo's house to discuss how to handle her."

"And what was your plan to "handle" her?" Star asked, her arms crossed .

"We weren't planning to kill her or anything like that." Slime said, getting into the conversation. "We were just going to raid her base, restrain her, and make sure that she was handed over to the proper authorities. That's why we have all these maps and stuff. We weren't actually planning to hurt anybody."

"Wait, If you knew where Mina's base was," Marco said. "Then why didn't you call the police earlier and let them know? We could have ended this a long time ago."

"Couldn't." Buff frog said. "We could not risk possibility that Mina had followers in Earth police department. If that were the case, she might have escaped. Couldn't do it."

"I guess that makes sense…" Star said. "So, you weren't planning to hurt anybody?"

"No."

"And you didn't kill Mina?"

"We swear it on our lives!"

"Okay." Star said. "Okay. But...why here? Why at Ludo's house?"

"It's empty." Penelope said. "Nobody is supposed to be in this forest anyways, so it's the perfect place to hold our meetings. Nobody would suspect a thing."

Ludo got up from his chair. "Constantly too." He said. "Almost every day now. I'm not even with these guys, they just pay me to let them do this. Also, sorry for not telling you. They told me not to tell you. I wouldn't have let you in here while they were over in the first place, but I knew that it would look suspicious."

"No problem…" Star said. "But why wasn't I told about this? Does Eclipsa know about it? Who else does?"

"Just everyone here." Dennis said. "And now you guys. We tried to keep a low profile. We didn't tell Eclipsa or Globgor because we felt like they already had enough going on with Mewni stuff than to also have to listen to us. You weren't told because...umm…" Dennis looked over at Buff frog. "Why didn't we tell her again?"

"Simple." Buff frog said. "We saw how happy you were with karate boy at the moment, so we didn't want to ruin your happiness with our meetings at the problems that we dealt with. But I suppose you went looking for those problems anyways."

Star started to smile, but then looked over at Ludo. "And him?"

"Meh. We pay him money, he lets us stay here. Win-win. Now, Star Butterfly, we're good, right?"

"Yup." Star said. "You know what, I'm just going to leave now. I kinda want to know now about your little secret society, but I'm tired, and I want to go home. So I'll see you guys around. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow."

"Very well. We'll see you then? If you want to join us. But...please don't tell anyone about us." Buff frog said. "We want to make sure that if there are more Mina sympathizers, then they don't know who we are so we can stay safe."

"Of course Buff Frog. Goodbye."

"Bye."

Star left the basement and Marco followed her, and the both of them exited the house and started walking towards the hole in the fence.

"So, we're just gonna leave?" Marco asked.

"Oh yeah. I'm tired. It's only midday, and I'm already exhausted. I think I'm going to take a nap."

"Sounds good. I'm going to go back to my house. See how my parents are doing. I don't think it's a crime scene anymore."

"Then I'm coming with you. Hey, by the way, you wanna go on a date or something later tonight? The two of us? I feel like we deserve a bit of a break."

Marco looked and Star and slightly blushed. "Sure. What place do you have in mind?"

"How about that new restaurant next to the town square? I think it was opened by a few Mewmans."

"Nice choice. I'd like to see how the Mewmans cook Earth food."

"Great! I'll see you there tonight at...six o'clock."

"Sounds like a plan." Marco said, smiling.

With that settled, the two teens continued walking through the forest, making sure to watch their surroundings in case any giant plants attacked them. But when they got to the hole in the fence, they were met with a confusing sight.

It was gone. The spider silk that Ludo has covered up the hole with was ripped open. Something had forced its way in.

"I thought Ludo said that webbing could sustain a lot." Marco said.

"Evidently not too much. Let's not stick around to find out what made it." Star said.

"I'm with you on that one."

Both Star and Marco carefully climbed through the hole, and went back into the street of the town. They then both headed towards Marco's house, eager to rest for a bit.

But as vigilant as they were watching out for any giant plants, they had failed to notice two bright orange eyes watching them from the foliage.

"Shame." Bren said to himself as they left. "You two weren't supposed to know about me just yet, but thanks to your little friend, I have to accelerate my plans. I doubt that will work out well for anybody." He sighed.

"But...that little date of yours? I should really thank you. That's just the thing I need. You helped me without even knowing it."

Bren started to walk away, but then looked in the direction of Ludo's house and narrowed his eyes.

"Perhaps I could them to my advantage as well…"

Not stopping for a moment more, he turned around and headed towards the house.

**Ludo's house…**

With Star and Marco gone, Ludo walked back upstairs to his house and opened the closet that contained the Star and Marco dummies.

"Alright." He said to the dummies, as if they were real people. "Who's up for a game of chara-"

He was interrupted by a loud knock on his front door.

"What?" He said in confusion. "They're back already? Did they forget something or what?"

He closed the closet, went over to his front door, and swung it open.

But instead of Star and Marco standing there like he expected, he was quickly met with a fist slamming into his face. He flew backwards and hit the door that led to the basement, then dropped to the floor.

Although his vision was blurry and he was barely conscious, he was still able to see and hear the person that had entered the house.

"Ludo, yes?" The figure said. "Hi. I'm Bren, and I'd like to speak with your little monster freedom-fighter group. There are some things I'd like to discuss. If they refuse to speak with me, then I will force them too. And while normally I'd force the demon boy to do the dirty work like that, I figured that I want to have some fun for myself every once in a while. So please, don't make this any harder than it has to be."

Ludo weakly got up off the ground and stared up at Bren, who started approaching the basement door. But suddenly, a loud screeching sound was heard, and Bren turned around to see Ludo's giant eagle and spider in the doorway, having sensed that their master was in danger. They charged, and Bren barely flinched at the sight.

Back in the basement, all the members had stopped talking and stared up at the ceiling, where they could hear various sounds coming from above. Sounds like yells of pain, furniture being thrown around, and Ludo screaming incomprehensibly.

The sounds finally concluded with a loud CRASH, as if a giant bird and spider had just been thrown into a wall. A second later, the basement door flew open and Ludo came flying through it, tumbling down the stairs like a bowling ball. He landed on the concrete floor, attempt to get up, but fell back down with a groan.

The basement stairs creaked as someone descended them, and everybody turned to look as Bren stood at the bottom of the steps, covered in feathers and holding a giant spiders leg in his right arm like a makeshift club.

"Hello boys and girls." He said to the shocked people in the room.

"Let's talk about Star Butterfly."

**A/N: Well, Bren just single handedly kicked the shit out of Ludo's pets. Not something he'd normally do, as shown with his "demon boy" comment. (Don't forget about that.) But don't worry, the pets are still alive. No more people are going to die just yet. Wonder what he's gonna discuss with the freedom-fighters? They will return. This chapter was just kind of an introduction for them. **

**The next chapter will be a nicer chapter than the previous ones, as Star and Marco probably need a break from everything.**

**Until next time.**


	8. Chapter 8: Brainsaya

**Aflame **

**Chapter 8**

**Brainsaya **

Leaving the forest of certain death, Star and Marco went back into Echo creek, happy that nothing bad had happened while they were there. Well, nothing too bad.

"So you're coming back to my house, right?" Marco asked.

"Yeah." Star said. "I mean, I'd rather stay at your place than the monster temple, and I'd like to go there to get an outfit for our date later tonight."

"Are you sure?" Marco asked. "I mean, I don't think all your best outfits are at my house."

Star looked at him, a small smile forming on the edge of her mouth. "Oh, so is what I wear the only important thing Marco?"

Marco put his hands up to his chest. "No! Of course not! I wasn't implying that! In fact, I-"

Star burst out laughing. "I was kidding Diaz! But seriously, yeah. Plus, there's some stuff there that I want to get. I couldn't earlier, because it was blocked off by the police."

"Okay." Marco said. "But what should we tell Eclipsa and the others about Ludo?" He asked. Although the Mewnian high council had really only suggested Ludo so they could leave, they would likely still want to know about him. Or at least a few members did. But Buff frog said not to tell anybody about their group, and they had to keep that promise.

"We'll just tell them the first half." Star said. "We went to Brudo, talked to him, found Ludo, went to his house and talked, found no evidence that he had anything to do with it, and left. We don't have to mention the monster freedom-fighters at all."

"That's a good plan. But a thought just came to my mind. We still have no idea who it was that killed Mina. We still don't know why either. How are we gonna figure that out?"

Star sighed and looked at him. "Marco, I thought we were gonna relax. Try and forget about all that for a while."

"I know." He said. "But I can't stop thinking about it. It's like a song that's stuck in your head that you just can't get rid of. I'm worried."

"I am too." Star said. "I get it. But we'll handle it later. But who knows, maybe they'll present themselves to us and we won't have to search at all."

"I...doubt that." Marco said. "But if you say so. I'll try to relax."

The two teens then walked in silence the rest of the way to the Diazes house, holding hands along the way. Luckily, like they had hoped, the house was no longer covered with police tape. It still looked like a bit of a mess inside though.

"I hope your parents are here." Star said. "I haven't seen them in about a day, so I hope they're doing okay."

"I hope so too Star." Marco said. "I can't believe I almost forgot how hard this whole thing must have been for them."

"Yeah...well, enough wasting time. Let's go see them."

Not skipping a beat, Star walked up to the house's door and opened it. As she had suspected, it was still quite...destroyed inside, as there was still overturned furniture and several smashed things. But it did look like a bit of cleaning had been done. Most of the bigger pieces of furniture were back in their original place, and most of the broken dishes and other things had been cleaned up. Angie was standing in the foyer, sweeping up some pieces of broken glass.

Upon spotting the pair, she dropped the broom she was holding and practically ran over to them, embracing them in a tight hug.

Marco, slightly struggling to breath, hugged her back, and a moment later they let go of each other.

"I'm so happy you're both alright." She said, smiling at them.

"Mom," Marco said, "We were just a day ago. We haven't been gone _that _long."

"I know, but you've been gone a while. What have you two been up too?"

"Well," Star said. "We had to go to the Mewnian high council meeting after Mina's...incident, and then they sent us to go investigate someone so they could leave earlier."

"Who did they send you after?" She asked, picking the broom back up and continuing to sweep.

"That Ludo guy." Marco said. "The green beaked monster who tried to steal Star's wand a bunch of times."

"Oh, that one?" Angie said. "I thought he would be in Mewni jail or something."

"He kinda was." Star said. "I trapped him in the void for a couple of months, and then he asked me to throw him back in. I guess that could be considered a kind of jail."

"That's nice. I'm going to assume that he had nothing to do with Mina. You two have told me numerous times about the incompetence of the people at those meetings."

"Yeah." Marco said. "Nothing at all...but what have you been up to mom? Just...cleaning everything up?"

"That's right." Angie said. "Your father and I have been doing a lot to clean everything up, even after the police said they'd offer to do it. But we declined. We were worried about them putting stuff in the wrong places."

"I see. But where is dad anyways? And Mariposa?" Marco asked.

"Oh, he's off buying some new furniture that we couldn't fix. Luckily, it was only a few rooms that were really damaged, but there's still a lot to be done. Your little sister is with Eclipsa's baby, having a playdate or something."

"We can help with the damage!" Star said. "I'm sure if we all pitch in, we can fix it up in no time!"

"Star, no." Marco said. "You said you wanted to relax. Go upstairs and take a nap like you said. You need it."

"But...you wanted to relax too." Star said.

"It's okay. I'll just stay down here and help my mom. Maybe just cleaning everything up will help take my mind off things. I'll just treat it as one big chore."

"Well, okay." Star said. "But we're still going on that date tonight, right?"

"Of course. I'll probably have to pick out an outfit though."

"Great!" Star said, before leaning on towards Marco, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, and then running upstairs, leaving a blushing Marco behind.

Angie watched her go with a knowing smile. "She's so sweet." She said. "You're really lucky you know. We all are."

Marco, still blushing widely, smiled to this. "Thanks mom. I can't even imagine what my life would be like if she had never arrived in it."

"I can either. Now, if you want to help, grab one of the brooms and help sweep out the living room."

"Got it." Marco said, before turning back to her.

"Hey wait. How did the meeting with Star's parents go? About the whole becoming a royal family thing."

Angie shrugged. "We had to cut it short because...well, you know. But we still have a lot of things to discuss. So, it's going slowly at the moment."

"Huh. Probably the only thing that is going slowly…" Marco said, before walking over to the broom closet, grabbing one, and walking over to the living room. Marco looked around and surveyed the damage. His parents had definitely cleaned up a lot. It was in much better shape than before, with most of the furniture back in place and the ones that had been destroyed having been thrown away. But it was still messy, with pieces of glass, couch leather, and even some wood splinters carpeting the floor.

Marco sighed, picked a random spot and started sweeping up the various broken things.

"Jeez." He said to himself. "Mina really messed his place up. I just hope that it'll be done in time for my date tonight. It'll be nice to finish it."

"**You won't." **A sudden voice said.

Marco jumped back and help the broom stick up like a spear, pointing it at nothing.

"Who said that?" He asked. "Mom, was that you?"

"I didn't say anything." Angie said from the next room over.

Marco frowned and continued looking around. "Must be hearing things…" He muttered. "Hope I'm not going crazy."

"**You might be going crazy."**

Marco once again held the broom up and looked around.

"Alright." He hissed. "Who was that? I know you're there!"

"**Up."**

Slowly, fearfully, Marco tilted his head skywards and looked at the ceiling, only to discover...the ceiling.

"**Not that up. I meant your head."**

"What?" Marco let go of the broom and grasped the sides of his head. "Are you...inside my mind?"

"**Fool. I am your mind. I'm what happens whenever somebody gets doubts about stuff."**

"I've had doubts before, hundreds of them, and "a voice speaking to me in my head," definitely isn't what happens." Marco said, not even believing that this was happening.

"**First time for everything."**

"No!" Marco said. "Not really! Voices in my head...that's like magic stuff. Like Neverzone stuff. You can't be an actually consciousness in my head. With magic gone, stuff like telepathy shouldn't be possible."

"**You're right. It's not. But I'm not magic. I'm just your brain, all it's fears and doubts, here to make you believe that your date with Star will be terrible. You're basically arguing with yourself right now."**

"Great, so now I'm insane?" Marco asked. "Because I'm pretty sure that stuff like hallucinations and delusions are signs of insanity."

"**Perhaps they are. But no. You're just nervous. You know it's true. With everything that's happened recently, you're afraid to even leave this house. Sometimes, stuff like this happens to people. They think they need someone else to tell them that they're okay. I guess you decided that you needed someone to tell you that it wasn't."**

"You know, you remind me of somebody. That stupid "naysaya" thing that was attached to my shoulder once. You even kind of sound like it. Are you actually-"

"**Nope. Just your brain. Call me "brainsaya" Diaz. Or should I say...me."**

"Alright, I'm not in the mood to deal with this, so I'm just going to get back to cleaning now. I have a lot of work to do."

"**You're never gonna get it done. Not in time."**

"...Are you gonna do for the rest of my life?"

"**I'll leave after the date ends. Or when you come to terms with your own fears about that date. But until then, enjoy your own head telling you why every decision you made was a bad one."**

"Fannnntastic." Marco said sarcastically, continuing to sweep the floor.

**Meanwhile, upstairs…**

Star slowly opened the door to her bedroom and looked around. Mina had only wreaked the first floor. It made sense. The babies and Janna were all on the first floor. Mina had definitely left in a hurry.

Star kicks off her shoes and flopped onto the bed, not even bother to get in a comfortable position. But try as she may, she couldn't fall asleep, and she sighed and grabbed the framed photo of Magic off her bedside table.

Star stared at the photo and hugged it to her chest.

"Oh Marco." She said. "I really you never have to know just how scared of all this stuff I am. It's kind of ironic. I told you that you needed to relax, and yet I'm here, unable to fall asleep because of my own worries."

"But...I promise we'll get through this." She said to herself, and to Marco.

"No matter what."

Star fell on her back and went to sleep, still clutching the picture frame.

**Several mind-numbing, boring, and unnecessary paragraphs of text later...**

"Let's see...should I go with the gray suit jacket, or the black one?"

"**Either one would make you look like a dork. Why would Star go for a guy who dresses like that?"**

Marco let out an annoyed groan and continued looking through his closet. The last few hours had been nothing short of hellish, with the "Brainsaya" constant putting him down every time a worry or fear came to his mind. Marco thought he could just get rid of it, considering that it was _his _mind that was speaking to him, but so far nothing had worked, so he just had to live with it.

"Gray suit jacket." He decided.

"**Oooooh. You're probably going to regret that later."**

"Why don't you just-" Marco started, before being cut off.

"**Hey, I'm just saying what you secretly think. You really do think that Star won't like that jacket."**

"Of course she's going to like it!" Marco practically yelled. "I've worn this on several of our dates before!"

"**Well, then maybe she'll be bored of it."**

Marco growled at this insult/possible truth/criticism, but didn't say anything else and walked out of his room. He had settled in mostly simple attire, with a grey jacket, white undershirt, red tie and dark grey pants.

With his Brain constantly making him rethink every decision of course.

Marco grabbed his wallet, walked down the stairs and waited in the foyer for Star. It was much, much cleaner than earlier. Sadly, just like his brain said, Marco didn't manage to clean it all up in time to get ready for his date, much to his chagrin.

"I hope Star doesn't take too long." He said. "We don't have a reservation, and I'd like to get a good table."

As per expected, the self-proclaimed "Brainsaya" returned to annoy him. "**There's not going to be any tables left." **It said, his own mind trying to convince him of that fact. "**The date will go horribly, and you will-"**

"Shut up!" Marco said. "I can hear Star coming down the stairs."

As the doe to Star's bedroom closed, Marco could see her coming down the stairs, dressed in a small blue dress, with her hair in two large yellow braids. Marco simply stared at her, a mixture of love and amazement in his eyes.

"You ready?" Star asked, unaware of the effect she was having on him.

"Ye-yeah." Marco stuttered out. "You look great Star."

"**Smooooooth. That's it? "You look great?" Not, "You look adorable?" Or, "Wow. You're so kissable right now." How lame."**

"Shut. The hell. Up." Marco growled through clenched teeth.

"**My my, such rudeness. So disappointing. She could do better than you."**

Stars face flashed into a blush as she grinned widely. "Awww. Thanks Marco. I kind of tried to model my hair like how it was in my butterfly form, did you think I'd do a good job? It's a _lot _harder than it looks."

Magic nodded his head. "Yeah. You did a terrific job. Now all that's missing is the six arms and wings." He said while laughing.

Star laughed at this as well. "And the golden dress. But I don't have anything like that. Maybe we should go shopping later. I bet Ponyhead will be up to it."

"Let's focus on the "now" Star. Come on. My moms out front with her car. She's gonna drive us."

"Can't we just walk?" Star asked, looking slightly confused. "I kinda like walking to places with you."

"Well...my mom said that it would be safer. She's worried that we'll get attacked by somebody. She's afraid that here are still Mina sympathizers out there."

"Oh." Star said. "That's fair, I guess. Okay, let's go Marco!"

They both exited the house and climbed into the backseat of the car, where Angie was waiting for them.

"Alright you two." She said. "Ready to go?"

"Yes!" They both answered at the same time.

"Good. Next to the town square, right?"

"Yup." Marco said.

Angie turned on the car and started heading towards the center of the town, while Star and Marco talked in the back.

"So, who do you think owns this new place?" Marco asked. "You did say it was opened by some Mewmans."

"I'm not sure." Star said. "All I know is that people seem to like it, so I thought it'd be perfect. A new place to check out, you know?"

"Yeah." Marco said. "Can't wait."

"**You're still worried."**

"Oh, shut up." Marco whispered.

"**But you are. Is this place good? Will Star hate it? Sure, you didn't pick it, but if she doesn't like it, then the whole date will be ruined."**

"You're wrong." Marco said. "This date is going to be great. I know it."

"**You know you don't believe that. If you did, I wouldn't be here."**

Marco didn't have anything to say to this. This was his brain after all. Well, probably. But it was spouting facts. He was worried. About everything. But that was natural, right?

Right?

"We're here you two!" Angie said, breaking Marco's train of thought.

"Sweet." Star said. Angie parked the car in a random spot next to the restaurant, and Star and Marco climbed out.

"Call when you're ready to go home! Have a great time!" She said before driving away.

"Huh. She's kind of in a hurry." Star said.

"I guess." Marco said. "Wonder why…"

Both of them entered the restaurant and looked around. It was, quite frankly, of good quality. The whole place looked quite clean, and was a mixture of Earth and Mewman culture, with medieval-esque decorations covering the building mixed with modern Earth lights, seats, and other knick knacks.

"This place is awesome." Star said, wowed. "It's nice to see this kind of mix between the two cultures."

Marco would have responded to this, but his brain was currently reprimanding him on his choice of cologne. (Citrus.)

A waiter came up to them. Just like the restaurant, his outfit was a mix of Mewman and Earth clothing, as his clothes were a mix between a Mewman butler's outfit and an Earth waiters. "Good evening." He said. "Just you two?"

"Yup." Marco responded. "Just us."

"Would you like a booth or a table?"

Marco turned towards Star. "Which one do you want to get?" He asked.

"Hmmm. How about a table?" Star said.

"Very good." The waiter said. "Please follow me."

Star and Marco followed the waiter as he traveled through the restaurant, eventually reaching a table near the middle of the restaurant, which Star and Marco sat down at. The waiter then left, leaving them both to choose what to order.

"What are you gonna get?" Marco asked.

"Not sure…" Star said. "Surprisingly, I only see a few corn dishes. Maybe I'll get one of those, keep it simple.

You did say you were paying earlier, right?"

"No, actually." Marco mumbled. "But I guess so, yeah."

"Nice. Now, I'll be right back." Star left her seat and walked off to the bathroom.

Marco watched her leave and then turned back to the menu. "Hope I have enough money." He said to himself, before realizing what was about to happen next. "Wait, nonono-"

"**You probably don't."**

Marco groaned, set the menu down and put his forehead on the table.

"You know," He started. "This date has gone just fine so far. You're just in the way. Once it's over, you'll disappear, just like you said you would earlier."

"**If this is an overly complicated way at telling me to shut up, it's not working."**

"Don't care. Now, I'm going to get a water and a corn calzone, and there is not a damn thing you can say to stop m-"

"**You...do realize im not actually here, right? Stop yelling at yourself."**

Marco fell silent, picked his head off the table, and stared at the menu while waiting for Star to return.

After a few more minutes, she came out of the bathroom and went back to the table.

"Do you know what you're going to get?" She asked.

"Yes." Marco said, sitting up.

"Are...you okay?" Star asked. "You looked kind of exhausted."

"No I'm fine." Marco said in response. "No problems here."

"Right." Star said, unconvinced, and staring at him oddly.

The waiter returned a moment later, and asked them if they were ready.

"Yup!" Star said cheerfully. "I think I'm going with...the cob cake. Along with that strawberry drink I'm seeing here."

"Would you like any sides?"

"Do you have nachos?" Star asked.

"We...could make that, yes."

"Then a side order of nachos please."

"Alright." The waiter said before turning to Marco. "And what would you like young man?"

"A corn calzone please. And some water. No sides."

"It'll be out in a few minutes." The waiter said before walking away.

"Star, whats a "cob cake?" Marco asked, never having heard of the dish.

"It's a Mewnian dish." Star said. "It's Like part corn, part cake, all mixed together in one dish."

Marco turned slightly green upon hearing this. "That actually sounds really weird. Not to mention unappetizing. I'm good with both foods, but I don't think I would want them together."

Star made a "psh" sound. "If you say so. But I think it's going to be great."

"**Oh no. She's looking kind of angry now. Nice comment. There's no possible way you can take **_**that **_**one back."**

"She's not angry." Marco mumbled. "She just has her food tastes, and I have mine. We're not a perfect couple. We have our differences."

"**Keep telling yourself that it's all okay. But we both know what you're really thinking."**

Marco scowled and tried to focus on something else in the restaurant. But try as he might, he couldn't. All he saw was a bunch of random people. A few monsters, a few humans, a few Mewmans, some teenager who for some reason had seemingly dyed his hair white. Wait, why did it look like he was watching the-

"So." Star said, interrupting Marco's look-see of the restaurant.

"Oh. What is it Star?" He asked.

"You haven't said that much." She said. "You're kind of quiet. Is there a problem?"

Marco laughed, trying to keep a cool face. "To be fair Star, you haven't said that much either. Plus, we kind of just arrived. It hasn't been that long."

"I know, but still. I feel like you're hiding something. A second ago, you were mumbling something to yourself, but it really sounded like you were talking to someone."

Marco looked away. "Um, that was nothing. Just thinking of something."

"Marco…" Star said.

Marco inhaled through his teeth and looked at Star, who was now looking at him with concern.

"You don't have to hide anything from me." She said. "Trust me, I'll understand."

Marco opened his mouth and was about to speak, but he was quickly interrupted.

"**She thinks you're a weirdo. Flee, while you still have the chance. Go home and do nothing for the rest of the evening."**

As tempting as that was in the current moment, Marco knew he couldn't do that. He started talking.

"I'm still worried, okay?!" He said. "Like I said earlier, it's a song stuck in my head, and it's been playing over and over. I told you to relax, when really it was me. All this stuff is so much to handle. Mina, Meteora and Mariposa getting kidnapped, Janna getting sent to the hospital? That whole monster freedom-fighter group we discovered, and now this Brainsaya thing-"

"The what now?" Star asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Nothing." Marco said. "Ignore that. But it's so much, you know? I feel like it'll turn out badly in the end. Even this date, which is supposed to be my time off with you, has been a nightmare because I'm constantly having doubts about what's right and what's wrong."

"**You're welcome."**

Marco ignored this and kept going. "So now I-"

Not bearing to see Marco behave like this any longer, Star quickly leaned forward and kissed him, snapping him out of his monologue.

"Feel a little better?" She asked.

Marco, now blushing intensely, dropped his head. "I guess so, yeah."

"Good, because since you helped me with this kind of stuff the night Janna was hospitalized, it's my turn to help you. I get it." She said. "I understand completely. It was just a day or so ago that you had to hear _me _complain about everything not working out in the end. I'm worried too Marco. But we still have each other. So until the day comes when we won't, I promise that I'll always help you through it, and you gotta help me."

"But what if that day does come?" Marco asked.

"Then I'll make sure that even if one of us is gone, we'll still have other people looking out for us."

Marco looked back at Star. "Thanks. That means a lot. Especially from you. You're always the one person I can count on."

"I know." Star said. "Now cheer up, I think our foods here, and I want you in good spirits for the rest of the date."

Just like Star said, the waiter arrived to the tables a few seconds later, and set their plates and drinks down.

"Is there anything else you need?" He asked. "Perhaps you would like a dessert menu for later?"

"No." Marco said. "We're good. Both of us."

The waiter nodded and walked away, not catching the true meaning behind Marco's words.

Both of them looked down and their plates and started eating.

"Hey." Star said between bites. "This is pretty good you know. You want some?"

Although Marco didn't want to risk throwing up, he also didn't want to say no. It _did _look rather appetizing, now that he had seen it.

"Sure." He said.

Star stabbed part of the cob cake with her fork, leaned over to Marco and gave him the fork. Marco cautiously put the piece of food in his mouth and started chewing it. A moment later, his eyes lit up.

He swallowed, took a deep breath, then turned towards Star.

"Can I have any more of that?"

"Ha!" Star exclaimed. "I told you! I told you it was good! I was right!"

Marco laughed at this display. "Yeah, yeah, you were right." He said, before picking up his calzone and taking a bite out of it.

"You any part of my calzone?" He asked.

"Nah." Star said. "I already know that tastes good."

'Huh.' Marco thought. 'Wonder what that means.'

"**She doesn't trust you to give her food. Or maybe-"**

"Quiet." Marco whispered. "Enough out of you. There's nothing more to be said."

"**Are you sure? Because trust me, I know everything you know. You still have doubts."**

"And I am choosing to ignore them. As well as you. So if you really are my mind, then take a look into yourself, and you'll see it's true."

"**..."**

"Well?"

"**Well. It seems you were right. No more doubts. No more fears. No more nothing. Guess that kiss and pep talk from Star really did it. That was faster than expected."**

"That's right. Now leave. You said when I overcame my fear about this date, you would leave."

"**Yes. I'll be going now. But, not really. I'll never leave. And I will return to make you-"**

"Just get the hell out of here."

"**Okay."**

With that all said and done, the "Brainsaya" left, and Marco was left alone with a feeling of happiness, and not a single worry inside him.

The rest of the date went relatively well, as Star finished her cob cake and nachos and Marco finished his calzone, all while the two of them talked to each other.

"This was fun." Star said. "I really needed this."

"As did I." Marco said. "It's nice to get back to a feeling of...normalness, maybe?"

"Definitely." Star said, setting her utensils down. "In fact, I have a feeling that this will all be over soon."

"You think so?" Marco asked, smiling at her optimism.

"Yeah. I really do."

Both of them stared at each other. Marco started to lean forwards, and Star did the same, and their lips were just about to touch and-

"Did you enjoy your meal?" A sudden voice asked.

Both Star and Marco snapped back into their seats, their cheeks now fire-engine red. Star was also noticeably annoyed at their moment having been interrupted.

"Yes." Marco said quickly. "It was good."

"Yeah." Star said. "That cob cake was pretty good as well.

"Can we have the check please?" Marco asked, pulling out his wallet.

The waiters eyes darted to the side and he pulled a checkbook out of his pocket.

"Well, there's something odd about that…" He said.

"What...do you mean?" Star asked.

"Your meal has already been paid for." The waiter answered.

"What? Who paid for it?"

"I don't know." The waiter said. "But when I saw you were finished with your meals, I went to your table to give it to you. But before I got there, I was stopped by somebody. He offered to pay for you. I initially refused, but he was quite insistent, and he said that something like that a very common Earth practice."

"It's...it's not." Marco said.

"Huh. That would explain why I've never seen anybody else do it."

"Who was it?" Star asked.

"Some teenage boy. He didn't give me his name, but he had white hair, orange eyes...I think. I don't remember what he was wearing though."

"Where is he?" Marco asked.

"He's sitting in the booth over-"

The waiter pointed to a now empty booth.

"Hm. I guess he must have left. Odd, he didn't order anything. Oh well, he did ask me to leave the check with you, and I heard it's rude to try and get in the personal business of customers." The waiter put the checkbook on the table.

"Thank you for coming, please come again soon." He then walked back into the kitchen, and Star and Marco watched him go.

"Well, that was weird." Star said.

Marco grabbed the checkbook and flipped it open. "Yeah. Especially since I think I saw that guy earlier, and I swear he was watching u-" Marco stopped cold, as if his mouth had just run into a brick wall.

"Are you okay?" Star asked.

Without taking his eyes off it, Marco passed the checkbook to Star, and mouthed to her "it's another secret note. Like the one Needles wrote to us."

Star's eyes widened and she took the checkbook. 'Another note?' She thought. 'Did Needles send somebody to tell us something us? No, he would have probably told us with a tennis ball, right? And he left town anyways.'

Star flipped it open and she read the note, which was written on the back of the check.

"Magic sanctuary." It read. "Tomorrow. Eleven. AM. Be late, and there will be consequences."

Both of them exchanged glances, and sat in an unnatural silence.

And both of them had their optimism swept away, replaced by a feeling that no matter what they did, no matter what happened next, it wasn't going to end well.

**End chapter 8.**

**A/N: I feel like this chapter may be kind of weak, or maybe it's good. Let me know what you guys think.**

**On the other hand, before anyone might ask, the Brainsaya is not any kind of separate entity, as stated multiple times. It's meant to represent all the fears one has before dates. It may or may not return.**

**The next few chapters are going to be a doozy, so until next time.**


	9. Chapter 9: The Sanctuary of Fire

**Aflame **

**Chapter 9**

**The Sanctuary of Fire**

Arguments between couples.

They are not nice things.

They can ruin a relationship, turn years of love and trust into nothing but meaningless time, and depending on how heated the argument is, ensure that the two people having the argument will hate each other for the rest of their days.

But is it inevitable to fight in relationships. No relationship is perfect. Even Star and Marco had their fair share of arguments. Mostly on what to eat, what to wear, or what to do after they did those things.

But no argument they have ever had before matched up to the one they were having in Star's bedroom right now.

"It's obviously a trap right?" Marco said, his voice rising. "You have to see that."

"Of course it's a trap Marco. But I don't think we have a choice."

"Um, no, we definitely have a choice. We can just tell the police and not go. We shouldn't just bend to the will of whoever this is Star."

Star got up off her bed and walked over to Marco. "Listen." She said. "I know it's a bad idea. But that note said that if we don't go, then there's going to be consequences. And I don't think that the consequences are going to be towards us. It's almost certainly going to be towards someone else. Simply put, _if we don't do this, _then somebody will get hurt, or worse, get killed! I don't know how I know that, but it's true!"

Marco took a deep breath and stepped away from Star. "But we can't." He said. "We'd be digging our own graves Star. Like I just said, we should tell the police. Let them deal with this. They can go to that place and arrest whoever it is."

"No." Star said. "If it is a trap, then we'd just be killing a bunch of police officers. I don't want to be responsible for that because we were too cowardly to do it ourselves!"

"It's not about being cowardly Star!" Marco yelled. "It's about making a logical decision! What good could come out of doing what that note says?!"

"I don't know!" She responded. "Because I'm not sure what else to do! Telling others about it would just endanger them! But if we do it ourselves, all we'll be doing is endangering ourselves! And _I _see that as a better option than putting others in danger."

"Argghhh!" Marco yelled in frustration. "Can't you just-"

They were interrupted by a loud knock on Star's door, and Angie poked her head in.

"Umm." She said nervously. "Are you two oka-"

"NO!" Marco yelled.

"Should-should I just lea-"

"Yes!" Marco said. "Please. Just...not right now."

"Okay." Angie said, before retreating and closing the door.

"Wow. Nice job." Star said sarcastically. "Talking to your mother like that. All pissed off and angry. You know, I wonder what yo-"

"I'm pissed off because of you Star!" Marco practically screamed, before immediately regretting it.

Both teens stared at each other for a few seconds, not moving or thinking.

"Star." Marco started. "I-"

"No." Star said. "Sure. Yeah, okay. I mean, yeah, I can be a hassle. I get it. You know what, I'm just going to go to bed Marco. We can continue this tomorrow. You're free to go to sleep by yourself. In fact, I encourage it!"

"You...deserve it."

Marco stood silently, his only wish in they moment being that he could reverse time.

"So, I'm just going to get in my pajamas, so can you leave? Like, I don't know...right. Now."

Marco nodded slowly and left Star's bedroom, not wanting to get into another argument or make Tara any angrier. He went into his room and silently closed the door, then looked out the window into the night.

"Great." He said to himself. "Can't believe that stupid Brainsaya was right. This night really did end up ending terribly."

Marco stopped looking outside and got his own pajamas, switched off his light, then climbed into his bed, not bothering to get under any blankets. He simply lay on top of them, uncomfortable and alone.

He sighed and looked at the ceiling. It was blank and empty, just like how he felt right now. He couldn't take it. It wasn't right. He decided that this night could only end terribly if he let it.

He got up off his bed, left his room and entered the hallway. He could hear nothing except the faint sounds of crickets outsides and other cliche night noises. Which was, to say, not much.

He slowly approached Star's room and entered it. He could see her lying on her bed, with all her lights off as well. If she heard him enter, she didn't acknowledge it. Marco slowly crept across the room and sat down on her bed.

"Star." He said, this time hoping he knew what to say. "I know you're awake. I can hear your breathing. I just want to say that I'm-"

"Sorry?" Star said, turning to face him. "Is that what you were going to say? You know, I think I said earlier that you're free to go sleep by yourself."

"I tried, but I can't." Marco said. "It doesn't feel right without you."

Star groaned. "I know. It doesn't feel right without you either. But I'm still kind of angry at you right now, and I'm sure you are too, so we're just going to have to deal with it."

"I'm...not angry at you anymore."

"It was five minutes ago Marco. There's no way that you-"

"But I did." He said, looking her in the eyes with regret. "I won't let myself stay mad at you for that long. Even five minutes."

"Why not?" Star asked. "You've been mad at me before. For instance, before you were kidnapped by Toffee, you were mad at me. For _much _longer than five minutes. What's so different about this time?"

"Because that was before we really loved each other!" Marco exclaimed, standing up off her bed. "It was before I _really _started caring for you. When you started mattering to me more than anything else in the world. And I don't want to live in a world without you. So I feel like If stay mad at you for too long, my brain or whatever might try and convince me that I should break up with you. And...I would never want that Star."

Star looked at Marco, tears now forming in her eyes at these words, and he kept going. Kept talking.

"Listen, I know you're still angry with you as well. And that's fine. Take as much time as you want. But I just don't want you to get hurt. You care about everybody else getting hurt, but not yourself, so I see it as my duty, as your boyfriend, to make sure that we don't get in a situation that there's no way out of. And one day I'm afraid that we're going to get in that situation, and that I'm going to lose you."

Star sat in silence, thinking about everything that he had just said.

"If you really want us to go," Marco said. "Then I'll go. But I'm sorry for yelling at, and I'm sorry for being a jerk. If you want to do what that note says tomorrow, then we'll go. So...goodnight."

Marco sighed and started to leave Star's room, but he quickly felt Star's hand grab his own. He turned around and saw Star now standing behind him.

"That's all you had to say." She said. "But who's gonna make sure that you don't get hurt?"

Marco took a deep breath and squeezed Star's hand.

"Myself." He said. "I don't want you to worry about me too much."

"Marco, I'm going to do that, no matter how much you don't want me too."

"I know Star. I know."

"Good. Then we're on the same page then?"

"Sure." Marco said. "We'll go to the magic sanctuary tomorrow. Even if I think it's a bad idea. But if it's what you think had to be done...then we'll do it."

The two gazed at each for a moment or two, before a second later, almost like a reflex, they quickly leaned in toward each other and met in a passionate kiss.

They continued and walked backwards onto Star's bed, where they fell next to each other and separated. Star put her head on Marco's chest, so she could feel his now fast-beating heart.

With no more words having to be said, both of them fell into a loving sleep, happy that they were both back together again.

**Morning...**

Star groaned sleepily and open her eyes, only to be met with an explosion of sunlight shining directly into her face. She squinted at the sudden brightness, and turned back towards Marco.

Marco awoke at the feeling of Star waking up, almost in sync with her.

"Hmmm. What time is it?" He moaned.

Star looked over at the clock on her bedside table. "Oh. It's...um, ten thirty."

"Ten thirty?"

"Yeah." Star yawned, not showing any emotion in the slightest.

Both of them continued laying next to each other until they realized it. They both shot of the bed and looked at the clock again.

"Wha- how did it get so late?!" Marco yelled to himself. "Okay, we have to go, NOW."

"Right." Star said. Marco ran out of her room to put on his clothes, and Star tore through her closet, searching for anything that would do. She eventually settled on-'Nope! No time to think about it!' She thought, pulling off her pajamas and throwing in the clothes she had picked out. She grabbed a few of her things and shot out of her room like a rocket, nearly running into Marco.

They both nearly fell down the stairs descending them, and then almost slammed into Angie, who was standing in the foyer.

"Oh!" She said. "Good morning you two. Are you...okay now?"

"Yup!" Marco said, barely pausing between each word.. "We just, umm, need to go somewhere. Like right now. Also, sorry for yelling at you last night mom. I was just-"

"It's okay." Angie said. "I understand if you two have...problems together. We and Rafael used to fight sometimes too. It's natural."

"Thanks !" Star said, before grabbing Marco by the air, flinging open the door and yanking him out. The two teens then ran through Echo creek towards the forest and lake that contained the magic sanctuary, almost running over a few people in the process.

When they got to the forest, they both paused to take a breath.

"How long do we have?" Marco asked, panting.

Star looked at her watch and frowned. "Twenty-five minutes." She said.

Both of them paused at this.

"I...think we have the time to walk." Marco said.

"Oh thank Mewni."

Both of them caught for breath and speed-walked down the path that led to the sanctuary.

"Who could it be?" Marco wondered out loud. "Who would kill Mina? Who would want to kidnap Meteora and Mariposa?"

"I don't know why, but I'm going with some angry Mewman."

"Yeah, probably." Marco said. "Although if they were mad at monsters, then killing Mina would only hurt them."

"I don't think they're mad at monsters…" Star said, and didn't reiterate.

The two continued walking through the forest until they hit a bend in the path, which ended in a large clearing.

"Okay." Star said. "It should be right around…"

She stopped talking mid-sentence, as both her and Marco saw what was in the clearing.

It was the magic sanctuary. Still there, standing in the middle of the lake it always sat in. But it was different. Last time they were here, it was broken. Destroyed. Nothing but a pile of rubble. But somebody had fixed it.

"It's...it's back." Marco said. "Somebody rebuilt it."

Star was about to speak, but she noticed that the sanctuary looked...off. Like something was wrong with it. It had the same basic structure, with the dome shape, large windows, and stepping stones that led up to the building.

But Star could still see that it hadn't been rebuilt the same. For starters, the materials it was made out of looked different. The old sanctuary had been made out of regular stone, but this new was made out of regular bricks, with a slick black mineral covering most of them. Another thing Star noticed was the windows covering the top of the dome. Before, they were just huge purple and blue windows. But now they were different colors, with bright splotches of orange and red covering them.

"No…" Star said. "It's different. Whoever rebuilt it, they didn't rebuild it like it was before. It's not the same."

"But why?" Marco asked.

"I don't know, but there's only one way to find out."

Star started to move forward, but Marco quickly grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back.

"Star." He said with concern. "Remember what I said last night. This is probably a trap. We shouldn't just go in. We should try and find another way in like we did with Mina's base."

Star nodded, and then looked down at the ground. "I agree. But I don't think we have that option. I'm not even sure if there _is _another way in."

Marco let go of Star's shoulder and walked up to her, now standing at her side.

"Then we're doing it together." He said, grabbing her hand.

"Always."

They moved forward towards the sanctuary. As they got closer, Star thought she could see orange light coming from one of the windows inside. It was flickering, like a candle flame.

Careful not to step in the water, they quickly made their way across the stepping stones until they were standing in front of the door. Marco took notice of the glassy black rock covering the bricks, and slid his hand across it.

"Is that...obsidian?" He asked. "Odd choice for a building material."

"What's that?" Star asked.

"It comes from volcanoes." Marco answered. "It's used to mostly make knives and ornamental stuff. I don't know where someone could have gotten so much of it through."

"Well, It looks pretty, I'll give it that."

"If you say so. Now…" Marco said, before grabbed the handle.

"One." He said.

"Two." Star said.

"Three."

Marco pushed on the door, and it swung open. They stepped inside, but stopped dead in their tracks a second later, awed by the sight before them.

The sanctuary had been completely transformed. What had once been a run-down temple devoted to magic and Glossaryck, was now nothing short of a beautiful cathedral devoted to fire and ash.

The walls of the sanctuary were painted with bright shades of red, orange, and yellow, while the floors were covered with intricate patterns of blue and white. The statues of Glossaryck that had once created an odd aesthetic were gone, with giant blocks of obsidian replacing them, carved to resemble some unknown fire deity that neither Star nor Marco recognized.

The pool of water in the center of the sanctuary was gone, now replaced with a huge black circular disk with four large holes in it. In each hole was a bonfire, roaring away. They were so large that Star and Marco could feel the heat from where they were standing.

As for the towering well that stood in the middle of it all, it was still there. But its roof was gone, and inside lay another bonfire, but with large, beautiful, white flames coming out of it. It looked almost otherworldly.

Frankly, the sanctuary looked much better than it had ever been. Before, the statues, walls, and even the floor were old and crumbled. But it all looked brand new, not to mention clean as well. There was not a speck of dust, or a speck of anything else, covering the obsidian carvings, the large disk, or any other part of it.

Star and Marco simply stared at the sight before them, which could only truly be described as a work of art.

"This is incredible." Star said, admiring it all. "This looked like it took years to complete. Those carvings, those patterns on the floor, the bonfires, how did anybody manage to complete this in such a short amount of time?"

"Maybe it was multiple people." Marco suggested. "Although you're right, the amount of work it would take to make this astronomical."

"I wonder who made all this…" Star wondered out loud, before the two of them realized at the same time why they were here in the first place.

"Hey!" Star called out. "Is anybody here? We got your note from the restaurant!"

There was no answer, no sound, nothing to hear except the crackling of the numerous fires.

Star looked at her watch. It read 11:03.

"Well, they're late." Star said. "Or did the note say P.M.?"

"No, it said A.M." Marco said. "I think…"

Marco then took a cautionary step forward, careful watching the ground in front of him for traps, footprints, anything at all. But try as he may, he found none.

They both stared inspecting each part of the building, taking long periods of time looking over everything. Surprisingly, there was even more to see when they looked closer. Marco thought he could see tiny symbols carved into the various obsidian blocks, and Star occasionally found small pebbles scattered around in odd patterns, hot to the touch as if they were burning coals.

"It's nice." Star said, stating the obvious. "But we're the only ones here. Did we just waste our time coming here?"

She turned towards Marco, who was currently ignoring her.

"Marco!" She yelled. "What are you looking that?"

Marco turned to look at her. "Hm? Oh, sorry, I was looking at that white fire that's coming out of the well."

"What about it?" Star asked.

"I'm...not sure how it's possible." Marco said. "I mean, flames can be white under certain circumstances, but I've never heard of them being as big of that. What would you even have to do to keep that burning all the time?"

"Five straight days of trial-and-error, that's what." A voice from behind them said.

Almost instantly, Star and Marco whipped around at the sound, revealing a shadow-covered shape standing at the entrance.

"Sorry I wasn't on time." It said. "I would have been here earlier, but I've been kind of busy as of late."

Marco quickly took a karate stance, and Star took a defensive stance of her own, taught to her by numerous Mewnian knights.

"You're him, aren't you?" She asked. "You're the guy that's been scaring everybody. You're the guy that killed Mina."

"Correct." The figure. "But where are my manners? I should introduce myself."

The figure stopped into the light given off by the flames, revealing the same person threat Marco had seen at the restaurant, and a person that Star had never seen before.

Star didn't know what she had really been expecting. An intimidating person, most definitely. Someone who looked like they could beat down anyone who got in there way. Someone who looked like a genius who was always ten steps ahead. But this person didn't look anything like this.

He was just some teenager. No older than them. Sure, he had some odd features, like his unnatural orange eyes, and his hair that looked liked it was dyed white, but other than that, he didn't look out of the ordinary. Even his clothes were nothing special. Just a grey long sleeved shirt with black sleeves, some random pair of extremely dark green pants, and a hoodie as black as the obsidian that surrounded them. If Star had seen him on the street, she wouldn't have given him a second glance.

"So," The figure said. "My name is Bren. Odd name, I know, I've heard that several times already, so you can make fun of it all you want. Also, you can stop your silly little defense stances. I didn't bring you here to hurt you."

"Give us one good reason we should believe you." Marco demanded.

Bren sighed. "I don't have one. But I can do this." He raised his right hand in the air. "I swear, by the order of ash and cinder, to harm neither of you while we are still inside this building at any time. There, happy?"

"No." Star said. "Because that still doesn't mean anything to us."

"I…okay, listen." Bren said. "Look around you. Look at the statues. Look at the bonfires. Look at everything. Now imagine how much time it must have taken me to create all this. Hours and hours and hours of nonstop work to make it possible. So do you really think I'm going to fight you and risk damaging any of it?"

Star and Marco paused. He did have a point.

"So, you can relax. I'm not going to fight you in here."

"Then what about outside?" Marco asked. "If we just go outside, are you going to attack us then?"

"God, you're paranoid." Bren said, shaking his head like a disappointed parent. "No. If I wanted to attack you directly, at this time, I would have done so already. Just please relax, so we can talk."

All three of them stared at each other. A few seconds later, Star once again took a normal stance, resulting in a surprised look from Marco, but he himself took one a second later, trusting Star's judgement.

"There we go." Bren said, happy that they complied. "Now that you're comfortable, I must ask, what do you think about it?"

"About...what?" Star asked.

"The sanctuary." Bren answered. "Do you like it? Is it good? I spent a long time working on it, I'd like to know what people think about how it looks, even if it's from you."

"It's...pretty good." Star said, being honest. "Honestly, I'm more interested in how you found the time to make all this."

"Oh, you know." Bren said. "A few hours a day can do wonders, as long as you _enjoy _what you're doing. If you like your job, you'll get a lot done, but if you hate it, then nothing will ever be accomplished."

"We didn't come here for your life lessons." Marco said, already on edge. "Why did you bring us here?"

"Did you listen to a word I said?" Bren asked. "I came here to talk to you. That is all. I would have waited a little while longer for this moment, but my hand was...forced, so to speak. By your little hospitalized friend."

"Janna?" Star asked.

"That's right. Because she told you about me...well, more or less, I had to speed up my plans so you wouldn't find me on your own. Because that's not really how I wanted things to go, and if that doesn't happen, then what has this all been for?"

"Okay, that's enough." Marco said. "You're not our friend. You're not our pal. You say you want to talk, but I can hear the malicious intent in your voice. So cut the crap and get it the point. You want nothing more than to see us both dead, don't you?"

Bren smiled. "Oh, you are a bright one. And you're right. I do want both of you to die. That's the real thing I'm working towards."

Bren moved forward towards them, causing them both to tense up.

"But…" He said, taking one step every second. "If I just kill you right here, then I wouldn't gain anything out of it. There would be no class. It would be no fun. I don't mind direct confrontations when necessary, but that doesn't mean I particularly like them."

Now a few feet away from them, Bren took another step forward, causing Marco to take a step forward of his own.

"Not another step." Marco said. "Don't come any closer to us."

"I can and I will." Bren said, ignoring Marco entirely. "Don't try and act like a tough guy Diaz."

Marco growled at this and once again took a karate stance, ready to attack Bren if he approached them any further.

Bren looked down at Marco, with an expression similar to a person looking down at an ant.

"Don't." He said. "I would crush you anyway. I know I don't look like much, but trust me, if you try and attack me, then I'll give you a one way ticket to the hospital, much like your little friend."

Marco didn't back down, but he did start getting nervous. He could hear nothing but confidence in Bren's word. He completely believed that he could beat Marco in a fight, and now Marco didn't want to find out if that was true or not.

"Besides," Bren continued. "I'm just trying to get past you. So could you just move out of the way or something?" He looked at them expectantly.

Star and Marco glanced at each other, then moved to the side to let Bren pass.

"Thank you." Bren slowly walked past them, then continued talking.

"Now, I want you to know that whatever happens next, I want you to try and stop me. I want you to try your hardest to stop my plans and defeat me."

"What?" Star asked. "Why would you _want _us to do that?"

"Because." Bren said, turning around to look at them, his grin now practically spread from ear to ear.

"It's no fun if there's no challenge. If I wanted to, I could have you all dead by the end of the day. And I don't just mean you two. Eclipsa, Globgor, your parents, even the entire damn _town_. All gone in a few hours. But I like to stretch things out and give my enemies a fighting chance, because it's fun to watch you panic and struggle against me."

"Why-why are you doing this?" Marco asked, honestly hoping that he wasn't hearing Bren right.

"Why?" Bren said, repeating Marco's question. "That is the question, isn't it? You really think I'm just going to explain my reasoning behind all of this? No, I'm not going to tell you. That's something you can figure out by yourself. And if you don't...well, too bad."

Star stepped forward towards him. "Why did you kill Mina?" She demanded. "Why did you order her to do all that stuff, only to kill her later?"

"She was a liability." Bren answered. "I couldn't have her ruining everything I worked towards. And she definitely looked like she was going to. That's why I gave her the idea to assassinate Eclipsa, and that's why I called the police a second later to tip them off about what she was going to do."

"Wait." Marco said. "The person who told the police about Mina was you?"

"You're welcome." Bren said. "And yes, it was me. I must say, seeing everything Mina worked hard to accomplish all come to an end like that...it was extremely satisfying, I must say."

"So, because she wasn't doing what you wanted her to do, you burned her alive?" Star asked, looking at Bren with newfound horror.

"Yeah, but so what?" Bren said. "Everybody dies. I just sped up Mina's death. Why do you care anyways? I thought you would be happy that Mina died. She was nothing but an enemy to you."

"Maybe so." Star said. "But even she didn't deserve that."

Marco looked over at Star. "Ehhh…" He started. "I mean, she was kind of-"

"Like. I. Said!" Star said, emphasizing each word. "Even she didn't deserve that."

"Whatever you say." Bren sighed. "Believe what you want to believe. In the end, it won't make a difference anyways. The outcome will remain the same."

"And what is the outcome?" Marco asked. "Us dying? That's what you said, right? That's your grand final plan?"

"Part of it, yes. But only part. While that's the main idea, I still have several...other ideas to get through before I go there. So don't worry. You got a while before set my plan into full motion."

"Well, I think you're going to find that rather hard to accomplish, you-" Marco said, before being swiftly interrupted.

"Actually, if I'm being perfectly honest," Bren said. "I don't really give a shit about you. You're just in the way. I was really talking to _her._" He pointed at Star.

"Me?" Star said. "Why do you hate me?"

"Like I said, something you'll have to find out by yourselves. I can't have you spoiling all the fun. Wait, did I already say that? I feel like I said that…"

Ignoring this, Star quickly spoke up. "You're not alone, are you?" She said confidently. "There's more people you're working with. Mina and her followers weren't the only ones."

Bren snapped out of his thought process and looked up at her.

"And what makes you think that?" He asked.

"A few things." Star responded. "The sanctuary...what you've turned it into…you couldn't have done it by yourself. Six months ago it was a pile of rubble. But now, not only have you repaired, you turned it into something else entirely. And you couldn't have done that while _also _working on these "plans" of yours. Not without help."

"Okay, you're right about that." Bren said, shrugging. "I did have help. Even I couldn't have made this all by myself. So I just hired a couple of fools to do it for me. And I do think it all turned out quite nicely."

"Why did you make it?" Marco asked. "Do you use as your base or something?"

"No, actually. You see, where I'm from, there was a particular religion that I followed. That everybody followed. So now, as I am the last living member, I saw it as my duty to make sure something survived. Something that makes sure that the religion didn't die with me. That's why I made this. It's the only thing left…"

"The last surviving member…" Star muttered. "Does that have anything to do with why you want to kill me?"

Bren stared at her for a moment and then made a "Tch" sound. "Hmmm. I let that slip out, didn't I? Oh well, doesn't matter, don't care. Maybe you can consider it a hint."

"Great." Marco said. "So you're some nutjob who was part of some evil fire cult."

"CULT?!" Bren screeched, now staring at Marco with pure, burning hatred. "IT WASN'T A FUCKING CULT YOU DISRESPECTFUL SHIT!"

Star and Marco both instinctively took a step back at this sudden outburst of rage, and both of them could see a rage in Bren's eye that made them practically freeze in place.

Bren continued staring at them for a few moments, before he sighed, quickly regained his composure, and attempted to somewhat calm himself.

"So," He said. "You can take that as a hint."

Both Star and Marco, unnerved by Bren's outburst, wanted nothing more than to leave. But they also both knew that if they were going to get through this, then they needed to get as much information out of him as possible.

"So...um...where are you from?" Star asked. "I'm going to assume that you're not from Earth, Mewni, or any other dimension I visited, because I'm never seen this type of building before. I've never heard or seen this religion."

"A place." Bren said, now with a faraway look in his eyes. "The last of the sister dimensions. The last of the parallels. Lots of names you could call it. But it's gone now, unfortunately."

"You know, for someone that wants us to figure out why you hate by ourselves," Marco said, staring him down. "You sure seem to be giving us plenty of hints. I think I got it figured out."

"Oh, do you?" Bren said, amused at Marco's confidence. "Then please, enlighten me Diaz. Tell me why I'm doing this. We'll see if you are right."

"Okay." Marco said. "You're not from Earth or Mewni. You're from another dimension entirely. Somehow, you dimension was destroyed, along with whatever religion the sanctuary is now dedicated to. And for some reason, you blame Star for this. So now you came to Earthni, to get your revenge and avenge your dimension."

Bren expression changed, either to one of surprise, respect, or something else along those lines.

"Well." He said. "You're not wrong...but you're not right either. That may or may not be what happened."

Star tilted her head this, confused by Bren's word. "You say that like even you don't know why you're doing this."

Bren suddenly got an expression that could only be described as worrisome, and he looked at Star and Marco without really seeing them.

"I…" He started, but a second later, he turned away from them towards the fire well, muttering to himself and grasping the sides of his head like a person having a mental breakdown.

"Ummm…" Marco said. "Are...are you…" He couldn't even finish his sentence. Both Star and Marco took a step forward to better hear Bren's muttering, which sounded something along the lines of, "You know what's right. You know what's right. You know what's right."

Both teens exchanged glances at these words, completely unsure of what to make of it.

However, a moment later, Bren stopped his muttering, took a deep breath, and turned back around to face them.

"Sorry about that." He said casually, as if what he had just done was normal.

"That happens sometimes." He continued. "Take no notice of it. It has nothing to do with you."

Marco frowned, then leaned in toward Star.

"I'm done." He whispered. "Let's just end this right here. We outnumber him, and I know that we can fight pretty well together. Let's take him down, and end this whole charade."

Star thought about this for a moment. That would just solve all their problems, wouldn't it? And Marco was right. If they worked together, they would almost certainly be able to take Bren down. Even if he had said that he would "crush" Marco in a fight.

But she had a feeling. A small one, but it was still there nonetheless. Something telling her that she shouldn't. Like a voice in the back of her head.

"_Don't…." _The voice whispered, and for a second, Star wasn't sure if that was brain her telling her not to do it or if it was something else entirely, but she had made her choice.

"No." She whispered back.

"What? Why?"

"I just...I don't think we should, okay? We're on his turf, you know. He might have weapons stored around here in case we tried to pull something. And we don't know what he's capable of. For all we know, he could easily take us both down in a fight. No, I don't think it's a good idea."

It wasn't the truth. But it wasn't a lie either.

"Well, then that's it." Marco said. "We're leaving."

Star nodded in agreement. Between Bren's mental breakdown, the random outburst of anger that he had had earlier, and overall just starting to get

tiring, Star and Marco had had enough of this. They needed to get back to Eclipsa and the Mewnian high council and tell them what was here, regardless of any "consequences" that would happen. They had to leave.

"Yeah, me and Marco are going." Star said. "This is getting too uncomfortable, even for us. So...uh...bye. How about...you just stay here? Or something."

"Wait." Bren said. "There are still some things I'd like to tell yo-"

"Nope!" Marco said, not having any of that. "Goodbye! You creepy little shit…" He muttered.

Bren simply watched them go, not moving a muscle. Star and Marco left the sanctuary without looking back, and went back outside.

"God, I couldn't take seconds more of hearing him talk. That was something." Marco said. "So, what's the next course of action?"

"Obviously, we tell Eclipsa and the Mewnian high council everything." Star said. "About this place. About Bren. Every single last detail. If he wants to kill us, and he wants us to try and stop him, then he can better believe we're going to."

"Looking forward to it." Bren said, now standing a few feet to their right.

Both teens looked at him in shock, and Marco looked back to the magic sanctuary, then back to Bren, stuttering his words. "What the...how did you…"

"Not important." Bren said. "But if you're leaving, then it's on my terms. And I have one last surprise to show you…"

"Fine." Star said, wanting this whole sordid affair to be over. "What is it?"

Bren straightened, clapped his hands twice, and a figure covered in shadow emerged from the underbrush.

Star gasped.

Marco's eyes widened.

"T-Tom?!" They both said at the same time, confusing now reigning inside their heads.

And yes, It was Tom. But at the same time, not really. He wore a look of pure defeat on his face, limped as if he had twisted his ankle, and generally just looked...terrible.

Star quickly snapped out of her shocked state and turned towards Bren.

"What is this?!" She demanded.

"Oh, poor Butterfly." Bren said. "Didn't you ever wonder _why _your little demon friend didn't come back for his family vacation?"

Marco wasn't having this. He turned towards Tom and yelled at him. "Tom! Blast him with your fireballs or something! Use your demon strength! He's right there!"

Tom look at Marco, with an expression that said that he couldn't do any of those things. "I'm sorry." He started. "But I-"

"HEY!" Bren yelled at him. "YOU DON'T GET TO SPEAK TO THEM!"

Tom cringed away form the outburst, like a pet being yelled at by it's master. Bren then pulled a small black device out of his pocket that had a small button on it, which Tom looked at as if it was a grenade that had been armed.

"Do I need to do this?" Bren asked, his finger hovering over the button. "You know what will happen. Don't think I won't hesitate to do it."

Tom shook his head, obviously terrified.

Star started marching towards Bren, her hands curled into fists. Bren saw her coming, turned towards Tom, then yelled, "Lucitor!"

Tom, following the command like a trained dog, stepped between Star and Bren, ready to stop her. Star stopped in her tracks, not sure what to do.

"You see?" Bren said. "I have him completely under my control. After I broke him in both body and spirit, all it took was a little…" He looked at the drive he was holding. "...Encouragement. Now, he'll do whatever I want. And the best part? He knows what he's doing! It's not mind control. The demon is fully aware of his actions, every horrible thing I've forced him to do, and if that's not funny, then I don't know what is."

Star shook with rage at these words, wanting nothing in the current moment more than to turn Bren into a pile of bloody paste, but she knew she couldn't. If Tom really _was _doing whatever he said, then she wouldn't get far. She was strong, but she didn't think she could take Tom in a physical fight.

"Tom." Marco said, once again attempting to speak to him. "Just take that stupid little device he has. I know you're fast enough. I've seen you. You can-"

"No, he can't." Bren said. "I can press this button faster than Tom can take it from me. And he if somehow does manage to steal it, then somebody else will press the button. Like you said yourself earlier...I'm not alone Butterfly. Don't think I haven't planned for everything."

Star clenched her teeth, but didn't go any further. If Tom had a reason for doing what Bren said, then she had one too.

"Nothing to say?" Bren said. "Well, then let's wrap this up. Tom, do the thing."

Tom looked from Bren, then back to Star and Marco, hesitating.

Bren tilted his head, then hovered his finger a centimeter over the button.

"Don't…" He said. "Remember what I said earlier…"

Tom looked at Star and Marco, mouthed, "I'm sorry," to them, then raised his hands in the air.

Instantly, like it had happened so many times before, a tower of flame arose out of the ground, a portal to the Underworld. It persisted for a few seconds, then vanished, with something else taking its place.

To Star, it just looked like a giant rock. But then it cracked. And shifted. Then orange lines like lava flowing down into the cracks appeared in its surface. Like an entanglement of limbs stuck together, the rock started falling apart, but upon closer inspection, it was just taking a new shape.

A second later, the pile finally reformed itself, taking a rough humanoid form. It "stood" up, and stayed still.

Star and Marco backed away from the rock creature until they were at the edge of the forest line. They had never seen anything like this before, and had no idea what to expect of it. It towered at least ten feet above them.

"Alrighty then." Bren said. "Now Lucitor...do it."

Tom looked at the ground, either in self-pity, regret, or sadness, and snapped his fingers. In a second, the rock creature sprung to life. Deep cracks appeared all over its body, eventually crumbling away to reveal fingers, horns, and even a face. The creature was then covered in flames, looking like a literal demon from hell.

(Which, it technically was.)

Star and Marco looked on in terror as the creature turned towards Bren, then simply waited, eager for a command.

Bren slowly turned his head towards the two teens.

"Impressive, right? It took a lot of searching to find this thing. Hundreds of years ago, the Underworld used these demons as mindless slave soldiers, sending him against their enemies. I had to crawl through some of the deepest parts of the entire dimension to find this guy. But now it's all worth it…"

He turned towards the demon. "You see, I had to find someway to make sure you wouldn't attack me. This is it. Sure, you could try and capture me, beat up Tom, and then finally end this. But while you're doing that, my demon will be doing _this._"

Bren whistled at the demon, then pointed a finger towards Echo creek. The demon, understanding, roared and stomped past Star and Marco, literally going _through _trees as it made its way towards its target.

"Now, you can either try and fight me…" Bren said. "Or you can go and attempt to save the town from that thing. Decide quickly, time is short. And by the way, it won't stop until it's dead, or the town is. So I'd get moving if I were you."

Star didn't stay to talk anymore. She knew what she had to do. Although Bren was important, the safety of the town and everybody in it was paramount, and she turned around and ran after it, not even knowing what she planned to do.

Marco watched her go, turned towards Bren and Tom, and then followed Star, sprinting as fast as he could.

"Ah, yes." Bren said. "So many distractions. Endless diversions. Nothing but beneficial. Simple, yet effective."

Bren looked at Tom. "Time to go."

Tom nodded, raised his hands, and the two of them disappeared in a tower of flame. A second later, they were gone, the only sounds left being the demon making its way towards Echo creek, and the small crackle of the numerous fires inside the sanctuary.

**End chapter 9**

**A/N: Basically, Bren's got everybody exactly where he wants them. I hope the Tom reveal made sense, and if it didn't, then why he's following his orders will hopefully make it that way.**

**Also, Bren's got serious psychological problems. That's gonna be fun to expand on.**

**Until next time.**


	10. Chapter 10: Demons and Drunkards

**Aflame **

**Chapter 10**

**Demons and Drunkards**

Mewnian forests are a truly beautiful thing.

Excluding the forest of certain death, the sheer elegance of the forest would bring any viewer to tears if they looked close enough. The plants and foliage are so complex, and at the same time something simple and enjoyable for all.

The wildlife was unique to the Mewni dimension, and nothing like it had ever been seen on Earth before, or any other plane of existence for that matter. Viewing such creatures in their own environment were very special experiences.

And the trees? Ah, the trees. Towering, giant fixations of wood, they were indeed something to behold. Oh! Look! Look there! Look at them as they...

as…

...as they're smashed to smithereens by a giant, rampaging demon.

Bren's demon plowed through the forest, destroying the complex plants and sending the unique wildlife running for their lives. Star and Marco followed the path of destruction, attempting to catch up to the creature, but this was futile and they knew it. The monstrous demon covered as much ground in one step as Star and Marco did in five, so trying to catch up to the beast was nothing short of impossible.

After Star realized that they would never reach the demon before _it _reached the town, she yanked her phone out of her pocket and dialed Eclipsa so fast her fingers practically left an afterimage.

After a few seconds of dialing, Eclipsa answered with a sleepy, "Hello?"

Star silently cursed to herself, that this was the one day she decided to sleep in, but shook it off and started talking frantically to her.

"_EclipsaEclipsaEclipsaTheresagiantdemoncomingtowardsthettownand-"_

"Okay, stop right there." Eclipsa said, interrupting her frantic attempt at communication. "Star, I can't understand you at all. You're talking much too fast. Now, what is it?"

Star took a deep breath and prepared herself to deliver the terrible news.

"Okay listen." She said, trying her hardest to keep her cool. "There's a giant demon heading towards the town. We need you to evacuate the town as fast as you can and get the Mewnian knights to get their armor, get their weapons, and try and stop it!"

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Star realized that that may have not been the best way to start.

Eclipsa, however, responded a moment later, with the tone in her voice indicating that she hoped she didn't hear Star right.

"Are-are you sure Star?" She asked. "Are you absolutely sure that's what's happening?"

"Yes!" Star yelled. "I can literally see the damn thing in front of me! I think we have less than a minute before it reaches the main town!"

"Where did it come from?" Eclipsa asked, panic-stricken. "If it was a demon, then it had to come up from the Underworld. Who-"

"Not important!" Star huffed. "I'll explain everything later. Just evacuate everybody that you can and send out some people to try it! Have the...police evacuate everyone, and have the knights fight it however they can!

"Right. Right." Eclipsa said. "I'll do what I can. You two just...help out however you can." Not wasting another second, Eclipsa hung up. Star and Marco continued running after the demon, despite the already huge distance between them.

"Did you seriously ask Eclipsa to send out the Mewnian _knights _against that thing?" Marco asked, doubtful.

"Yeah." Star said. "Why, is that a problem?"

"Ummm, yes!" Marco said. "You _saw _that damn thing. It's huge! It looks like it could pick up a car and throw it like a plastic toy! I don't think those knights don't stand any chance whatsoever against it."

"Well, what do you think we should do?" Star asked. "Because I don't think we have any better of a chance at stopping it than they do!"

"Call in something bigger!" Marco hollered. "Call in the Air Force! Call in the military police! Call in the green berets! I don't know! But we can't just-"

Marco's word of suggestion were interrupted by several large smashing noises, all of them coming from the direction the demon went in. Both teens looked at each other, realizing that this meant.

"It's too late." Star said. "It reached the town. Alright. It doesn't matter if we don't have a chance at stopping it. We have to try something. No time to call in the military. It could be over an hour before they get here. Maybe two."

"I don't think it would take them that long-"

"Well, it would still take too long!" Star said.

"Then what the hell do we do?" Marco asked. "I don't think my karate moves or your Mewman strength are going to do much against it."

"Well…" Star looked at the various sections of the ruined town, considering her options. What did she know? What could take it down?

'Think!' She thought. 'How do we do this?'

Well, it was a demon. What weaknesses did demons have? Magic. Magic could hurt them. But that didn't really exist anymore, did it? What else could hurt them? Then Star remembered. Back at the magic sanctuary. How the demon formed. It had been brought to life by all the fire and the lava-like stuff appearing on its skin. Could that be the key? If it was like normal fire, then could she somehow douse it and turn it back into a rock? It was worth a shot. Right now, she didn't have any other ideas.

"I have a plan." She said to Marco. "We're gonna douse it. It was brought to life by those flames. If we can get rid of them, then I think that should kill it."

"How did we do that?" Marco asked. "Push it into a lake?"

"Umm…" Star said. But her planning would have to wait. As the two of them reached the end of the forest path and entered the main town, they were both petrified by what they saw. Wrecked cars lay all around them, their roofs smashed in and their engines ripped out of them.

The numerous buildings of Echo creek were also in a sorry state, with chunks of masonry and bricks falling off of them. They looked like the demon had rammed into them head on.

Even the ground beneath them wasn't spared, as there were giant indents in the sidewalk and road from the demons footsteps, the bottom of the holes filled with smoldering tar as if someone had taken a flamethrower to them.

Luckily, however, the various Humans, Mewmans and Monsters of Echo creek did not rank among the destroyed things. Most of them had almost certainly run away after they heard it coming. That or the evacuation order that Star had told Eclipsa to give had worked at the speed of light.

"Okay…" Marco said, nervously surveying the destruction. "What's your plan for...dousing that thing?"

Star looked around the town, searching for something, anything that would help them. Then her eyes fell on a large water tower. She then looked back to the trashed buildings, which the demon had just ran into.

"It likes ramming into things…" She said to herself.

"Huh?"

"I know what to do." Star said. "It's a stretch, but I think it can be done. All we have to do is buy time and catch up to it, then lead it somewhere.

"Well, even if we can't buy any time, I'm sure the Mewnian knights will!" Marco said with a sarcastic enthusiasm. "I wonder if they're fighting that thing right now…"

**Meanwhile…**

Eclipsa ran as fast as she could through the monster temple, almost running into a weak monster statues. Even Globgor, who was busy taking care of Meteora, was almost ran over by Eclipsa.

Skidding to a halt, Eclipsa frantically attempted to speak to Globgor, not unlike Star had just done a few minutes ago.

"Globgor!" She said. "I need you to call the Echo creek police department and have them evacuate the town. I then need you to tell them that there is a giant demon heading towards the town as this very moment and that they have to move as fast as possible!

"...What?" Globgor said, barely understanding a word.

Eclipsa sighed. "Listen. Call the police department and tell them that there is a demon coming towards the town. Then tell them to try and evacuate as many people as possible. They're all we have right now."

"A giant demon?!" Globgor said, disturbed by every word coming out of Eclipsa's mouth. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Eclipsa said. "Well, actually no. Star told me about it on the phone just now. But I could hear in her voice that she was telling the truth. So do what I just told you."

"What are you going to do?" He asked.

"I'm going to get the Mewman knights. Try and hold it off until we can find a permanent way to stop it."

"Right. Got it. Be careful."

"You too."

Globgor ran off with Meteora towards the one phone in the temple, and Eclipsa didn't waste another second dashing out. She looked down at the town and heard several loud noises that sounded like something the size of a bus stomping its way through the shopping district.

Even from hundreds of feet away, Eclipsa could easily see the beast. It towered above every vehicle surrounding it and even some buildings, smashing anything that got it its way. (Or anything it just didn't like the look of.)

Eclipsa ran down the hill towards the town, heading for the den where all the Mewnian knights spent most of their time. Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the town. It would take a while to get there on foot. And in the meantime, the fiery monster would tear half the town apart.

"Come on...come on…" Eclipsa said to herself. But her thought process was brought to a halt when she heard the sounds of dozens of hooves on concrete. She looked to her left and saw a stampede of warnicorns running down the streets of Echo creek, completely out of control.

"The warnicorns?!" She said, bewildered by their presence. "Who let them ou...wait, no. I can use this."

Without skipping a beat, she ran down the stairs of the monster temple, skipping them three at a time. She made it down to the streets just as the stampede was running past and quickly jumped in the path of one of them.

The creature neighed loudly and reared up in front of her, but this only seemed to be out of surprise, and calmed down soon afterwards. Surprisingly, the warnicorn had a saddle on. In fact, all of them did. The rest of the warnicorns ran by as Eclipsa approached the one she had stopped. She slowly walked up to it and slowly caressed its cheek, attempting to show that she meant no harm to it.

"Who let you loose…" She asked, as if expecting an answer. But, as one would expect, she received none. Eclipsa then shook her head, getting rid of all her questions about who or how. That would have to be answered later. She swiftly jumped on the creatures back and snapped its reins, causing the warnicorn to start trotting down the street at her command.

Eclipsa quickly guided the warnicorn through the ruined town, but she traveled further and further, she noticed that something was off.

There were no people.

In fact, there was nothing at all. Not a single soul other than herself was present on the streets, as if they had all up and left hours ago. The shops were abandoned, cars and trucks were still in their parking spaces, and she was the only one there to witness it all. In fact, if there currently wasn't a giant monster trying to destroy everything, Eclipsa might say that it almost looked like a ghost town.

'There's no way that the police could have already evacuated everyone.' She thought. 'I told Globgor to call them less than five minutes ago. But it looks like the town's been completely deserted for over an hour!'

Although unnerved, Eclipsa knew that she still had to get to the knights den. The warnicorn continued going down the street before she turned a corner, and almost ran right into Star and Marco.

The warnicorn once again reared up in surprise, and Eclipsa quickly did her best to calm it down.

"Star! Marco!" She said, as her warnicorn planted its feet back on the ground. "Do you know what's going on?"

"Uh. We already told you." Star said. "There's a giant demon attacking the town, and we're trying to figure out a way to stop it. By the way, where did you get that warnicorn?"

"It was just…wandering around." Eclipsa said. "Along with almost a dozen more of them. I think somebody let them loose from the stables."

"Why would anyone do that?" Marco asked.

"I don't know. But that's not what I'm confused about right now. I'm more confused about where all the townspeople went."

"You evacuated them, right?" Star said. "After I called you and told you to do just that."

"I told Globgor to call the police and tell them to evacuate everybody! Right after you I hung up on you. But there's no way they've even _started _to evacuate the town. It all happened less than a few minutes ago."

"Then...where the hell did everybody go?!" Star asked.

"Ugh! I knew there was something weird going on!" Marco yelled. "Of course it wasn't an evacuation, all the cars are still here! An evacuation doesn't look like the rapture just happened!"

"What's the rapture?" Both Star and Eclipsa asked him at the same time.

"It's...a thing. I'll tell you after we sort out-"

They all heard a roaring sound and swiveled their heads to the left, where they could see the giant demon turn a corner and run into a sneaker shop, utterly obliterating the front of the building. It paused for a moment, then turned their way. Even though it didn't have pupils, Star could see the anger it its eyes intensify as it spotted them.

"...After we sort out that!" Marco said, finishing his sentence.

The demon once again roared into their direction, then started galloping towards them like an enraged bull. With each footstep it got another 6 feet closer.

"All right." Eclipsa said, taking charge. "Both of you get on the warnicorn with me. We're all going to-"

"No." Star said.

"What?" Eclipsa said, looking at Star in surprise.

"We can't. If we go with you, that damn thing will just follow us. Me and Marco have to stay here and make sure it doesn't follow you. And to find a permanent way to stop it."

"Star, it's getting closer-" Marco started, before Eclipsa asked another question.

"How are you going to stop it?" She asked.

Star pointed at the water tower she had spotted earlier. "The water tower. That demon is made of fire and lava and other hot stuff. Me and Marco saw it come to life. I think if we can somehow get rid of all the hot stuff, then that _should _kill it."

"How will you-" Eclipsa said, before noticing that the demon was less than a hundred feet away. It would be on them in seconds.

"Alright. Okay." She said. "Good luck to you both. I trust that you can do that." Not waiting a second more, Eclipsa turned her steed around to take an alternate route to the den, and she and the warnicorn took off down the road.

Marco, meanwhile, grabbed Star's shoulder and yanked both her and himself out of the demons path, barely getting out of the way in time. The demon attempted to stop, but then tripped on a gigantic pothole in the road, causing it to crash to the ground.

"My god Star! Next time don't cut it so close!" He said. "That thing was inches away from hitting us!"

"Sorry." Star said. "But Eclipsa wanted to know what we I as planning. Doesn't matter anyways. Right now, we have to lure that thing over to the water tower."

"How do you suppose we do that?"

"You're not gonna like it." Star said. "But...remember that one tv show about matadors and bull fights you once showed me?"

Marco looked over at her. "No…" He said, slowly understanding what she was getting at.

"Oh yes." She said. "Now take off your hoodie. We're going to need it."

**Meanwhile…**

Not stopping for anything, Eclipsa raced the warnicorn down the street, sharply cutting corners and just missing hitting street signs, cars, and randomly places roadblocks. But just like everywhere else, there was still not a single person to be seen.

But that wasn't even the strangest part of it. Just like Marco had mentioned earlier with the vehicles, it didn't look like anybody had fled the town. It just looked like they had all been dropped off the face of Earthni, there in one second, but gone in the next. Every car was still in its previous place from the night before, none of the shops had opened for the day, and she was completely and utterly alone.

But Eclipsa wasn't complaining. If all the townspeople weren't in the town at the moment, then that meant they wouldn't be caught in the middle of the demons rampage.

'Unless something worse happened to them…' Eclipsa thought. 'Oh god, what if...no. Don't worry about that. Focus.' Eclipsa erased all the thoughts from her head and focused on her goal. After a minute or so more of guiding the warnicorn through the streets, she started to approach the Mewman section of Echo creek. The road suddenly stopped being paved and was turned to dirt, and the houses and other buildings no longer resembled normal Earth architecture. That and it was no longer as clean or smelled anywhere near as good. But just like the Earth section of the town, the Mewman section was also completely devoid of people.

'Okay, now I _know _something isn't right.' She thought. 'Despite the fact that that they're right next to each other, the two sides don't interact as much as I wished they would. But if _both _sides are gone, if both are involved in this disappearance, then there has to be something much bigger at play. But...I'm almost there. The knights den isn't that far away. Maybe if the knights are still there, then they'll know what's going on. Wait, what am I thinking? Of course they're still there. I never see her anymore. No one does. I wouldn't be surprised if they live there for corns sake.

Picking up the pace, the warnicorn kept galloping on until it finally reached the den, nothing more than a small stone building designed to look like a house, as to hide its true nature. But more people knew about it than knights cared to admit.

Not even waiting until the warnicorn stopped, Eclipsa leaped off its back and ran up to the door. She frantically knocked on the door a few times before giving up and simply opening it.

"Oh thank Mewni."

Just like she had hoped, all the knights were still inside. The only people that Eclipsa had seen today besides Globgor, Star, Marco, and herself. They were all either lounging around or drinking random bottles of alcohol...but most of them were doing both.

The den itself was exactly how it looked when Eclipsa had last seen it, filled with tables, pictures, capes, and random piles of gold coins here and there.

All of the knights looked up at her, except for Sir stabby and Sir Dashing, who were currently passed out on the floor.

"Oh…hey. Queen Eclipsa." Sir Cuddles said, nothing short of completely inebriated. "What's up? Been a while since we've seen you. You know, since we haven't had anything to do lately…

Eclipsa would have told them about the demon attacking the town and about how they needed to help, but she was currently in shock at the sorry state of the knights. Although they were rather heavy drinkers, it never got as bad as _this_.

"What...are you people doing?" Eclipsa asked, slowly looking around the room in shock.

"What do you mean?" Lady Whosits asked her, drinking beer straight from a giant barrel.

"What I mean is what happened to you?!" Eclipsa yelled. "The town is currently under attack, all the townspeople have mysteriously disappeared, and all you're doing is drinking like it's the end of the world! You are supposed to be the sacred knights of Mewni! It's protectors! But what I find is a bunch of drunkards! It's not even midday! Is...this how you spent all your time?!"

She looked over at Higgs. Even she looked a little tipsy, wobbling back and forth and struggling to stay on her feet.

"Ever her?!" Eclipsa said. "How old is she again? I'm not even sure that's it's _legal _for her to be drinking now that we have to adhere to Earth laws. What in the name of Mewni have you-"

"Okay, stop." Sir Stabby said, having been woken up by Eclipsa's shouting.

"Yeah." He said. "You're right. We are a bunch of drunkards now. But you know why? Because we have _nothing to do_. Those Earth police handle literally everything! Us knights haven't done a single thing! Tell me Eclipsa, when was the last time you thought of us? When was the last time you asked us for help before now?"

"Well...asking you for help right now was really Star's idea." Eclipsa said, before realizing that she might have just made the situation worse.

Sir Stabby growled and turned away from her. "Of course it was! Of course _she _thought of us. But not you! Not! You! So, after we didn't have anything to do, we got all depressed and sad. We had no purpose. And what do Mewmans do when they're all depressed and sad? That's right, drink! Drink until you drop! So we did! We've been doing it for months! Living in this here den. But no one, not a single person, has checked up on us. Nobody cared. Everybody forgot about the knights. Except the Butterfly girl. I wonder why that is?"

Eclipsa sighed. All the knights were no awake and staring at her with accusing glances, despite the fact that their blood-alcohol level was currently so high it should have been impossible for them to focus on anything.

"Listen." She said. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that we forgot about you. Truly, I am. But now is not the time to dwell in the past. Because we have a situation right now. The police are gone, so only _you _can help the town."

"Oh, so when your precious police are gone, _then _you turn to us?!" Sir Dashing said. "I should ahem expected as much-"

"No!" Eclipsa yelled. "That's not what I meant. What I _meant _was that I told Globgor to call the police so that they could evacuate the town! I need _you _to do something else entirely!"

"Why would the town need evacuating?" Higgs asked.

"Because there's a giant demon currently attacking it!" Eclipsa shouted at them. "But every single person in the town is gone. No trace of them. Except for all of you. Now, are you going to stay here, wallow in shame and drink your alcohol, and not help me…"

Eclipsa pointed the door.

"...Or are you going to do your job, be the knights of Mewni, save the town, and once again, like you've always wanted, finally get re-recognized and praised like you should be?!"

They all looked at her, then looked at each other, as if waiting for somebody to make the first move.

Eclipsa growled. "Fine! Stay here! I'll just have to come up with something and-"

"No! Don't leave!" Sir Stabby said.

Eclipsa turned around and looked at him.

Stabby turned towards the other knights and spoke, this time directly towards them. "She's right!" He said. "For too long we have done nothing. For too long we have lived by the bottle. For too long we have abandoned our post. Not anymore! The Queen has just showed me the way with her angry speech. If Mewni truly is in danger, and only we can help, then we must. And after our victory, no longer will we simply wait around for orders. We will go out and help however we can, in any way we can! That way, people will see us as their heroes again, true saviors of the land."

The other knights all suddenly agreed and nodded to this. Several of them threw the various bottles they were holding to the ground, discarding them like trash.

"Yes! Yes fellow knights!" Stabby said. "Now, grab your swords and get your armor! It's time to fight! Fight like we never have before!"

Everyone cheered. Grabbing their randomly scattered weapons that had been strewn about the room, the knights then (albeit with difficulty) threw their armor on and prepare themselves for a battle. Not a single one of them looked drunk anymore.

Sir Stabby and the others walked over to Eclipsa. Once he reached her, he and the other knights immediately knelt before her.

"Queen Eclipsa." He said. "We are once again at your command. Tell us, where is the enemy, and how do we destroy him?"

Eclipsa, almost too shocked to speak at the knights sudden and quick change of heart, took a moment to respond.

"Umm...okay. Glad to see you all like this. The demon is in the middle of the Earth section of the town, although he...or it, really, might have gone somewhere else by now. Star is currently working on a way to kill it by dousing it with water, and what I need you to do is to make sure that the demon can't get the opportunity to stop her."

"Is that all?" Sir Muscleton asked.

"Yes." Eclipsa said, and then added for good measure, "You are integral to this."

"That's all we needed to hear!" Stabby yelled, getting up and running out of the den, sword in the air. All the other knights followed suit, raising their swords above their heads and dashing out of the den. Eclipsa watched them go, still shocked at how fast they had changed their minds. Although because they were drunk, they _were _likely more open to suggestion. It was quite possible that by tomorrow, they wouldn't even remember any of this. That is, if they survived.

But Eclipsa knew that she had to help them however she could. She ran back to the warnicorn, which was watching the knights run off with a look of visible confusion on its face. Eclipsa leaped onto its back and once again snapped its reins, and they took off.

She caught up to the knights after half a minute, and slowed down so she could run alongside them.

"Follow me!" She yelled. "I'll take you to the demon. After that, I'll go find Star and Marco and see how you can help!"

"Very good!" Sir Dashing said. "We will help out the princess anyway we can! Praise the girl who never forgot about us!"

"PRAISE!" All the knights screamed in unison.

Eclipsa felt a small twinge of guilt at this, but then she realized that if the knights decided that they were going to follow Star's orders to the letter, then they could be much more useful than just hitting the demon with their swords.

"Knights!" She yelled. "When you see Star, you listen to her! Whatever she tells you to do, you do it!"

"Understood!" Sir Stabby yelled back.

The group continued running back towards the Earth section of Echo creek, not stopping for a moment. None of the knights made note of the fact that everyone had disappeared, and Eclipsa didn't remind them. If they were too drunk to notice, then that was how it was going to be.

As they got closer, the sounds of destruction and chaos got louder. All of them could easily hear the roars of the demon and the various crushing noises as it demolished everything in sight.

"The enemy!" Higgs yelled. "I can hear it!"

"This way!" Eclipsa said, as the group entered the Earth section of the town. Dirt turned to concrete as they made their way down the main road, all of them itching for a fight. And it seemed they would get it. Turning a corner, they all saw Star slowly walking down in the middle of the intersection, holding Marco's hoodie and waving it with her hands like a cape.

"Uh...what is she doing?" Dashing asked.

"Maybe she's-"

Their assumptions were loudly interrupted by a roar as loud as a train horn, and they all looked down the intersection to see the source of the noise. Once they did, it would be a lie to say that they were still completely confident in their abilities.

A demon the weight and size of a mack truck came barreling down the road, while also moving as fast as one. It charged at Star with nothing short of pure anger and rage in its eyes, fixated on nothing but her. As it got closer and closer, Star readied herself to move.

At the last second, she whipped Marco's hoodie away and quickly step sided, letting the demon run past her. Unable to stop itself, it collided with a random shop, causing the shop's roof to collapse on itself and the demons anger to be amplified.

Eclipsa jumped off the warnicorn and ran up to her, while the knights still stared at the demon, their swords now hanging at their sides.

"Eclipsa?" Star said. "Boy, am I glad to see you! I've been using this technique that I saw on some tv show to get the demon to charge at me. Seems to be working for now, and I'm trying to lead it to the water tower."

Star looked past Eclipsa and noticed the knights, who were now looking at her.

"Oh, you got the knights to come?" She said, stating the obvious. "Did they know anything about why the towns abandoned? Me and Marco didn't figure anything out."

"No." Eclipsa said. "They didn't know anything. They were too busy drinking themselves to death. But _somehow_...I managed to convince them to put their bottles down and help us. Nevermind that though.

Where is Marco anyway? Why isn't he with you?"

"I sent him ahead." Star said. "He didn't think the whole hoodie thing was a good idea, so I told him to do something else. He's currently at the water tower that I plan to drop on that demon, and I told him to try and weaken it however he can. Make it easier to knock over. But now that I think about it, I'm not really sure how he's gonna do that…"

"I'm sure he'll figure...something out." Eclipsa said. "But right now, I need you to tell the knights what to do. They'll listen to you, because you're the only one who remembered them."

"Uh, sure. Okay. Hey, you all, listen up!" Star shouted, turning her attention to the knights. "I need you to help me lure that demon to the town's water tower! Once that's done, I'm gonna need your help to take it down and make sure it hits it's target!"

Right on cue, the "target" burst out of the ruins of the shop, bellowing. It was so loud that dozens of windows several streets over shook at the sheer ferocity of the noise.

"What...exactly should we do to accomplish that?" Whosit asked.

"Simple." Star said. "I need you to get the demons attention and lead it to the tower. I'm going to go ahead and find Marco so I can help him take it down. Once you're there, I'm going to need you to make sure it's in _one specific spot_, no matter what. You got that?"

"Of course." Stabby said, his confidence returning. "We will take this beast down princess Butterfly!"

"Great. Eclipsa, help them with the leading part, will you?They honestly look a little…"

"Drunk?" Eclipsa said, finishing Star's thought. "Yes, they are. But they are still able to fight. I think. So go ahead. Help Marco, and we'll lead this thing to where it needs to go."

"Thanks Eclipsa!" Star said, before running in the direction of the water tower. The demon glared at her and got ready to once again charge, but stopped at the sound of a war cry behind it.

"ENEMY OF MEWNI!" Stabby yelled at the creature. "WE WILL DEFEAT YOU IN BATTLE!"

"No!" Eclipsa yelled. "Don't just fight it! Star needs you to lead it to the water tower!"

"Oh...right. Wait, why didn't she just let it follow her?"

"Because she needs time to weaken it so that she and Marco can-, you know what, that's not important! Just attack that thing thing and get it to the tower!"

"Right!" Sir Cuddles said. "Lead it to the tower!"

The knights all got in a battle formation and charged at the beast. The demon, unimpressed, raised its foot and got ready to stomp on them. But instead of charging right at it, the knights ran to the side at the last second, slashing the demons legs with their swords. Although it only left a few small scratches, the demon roared in pain at the minor injury.

"It doesn't have a high pain tolerance!" Whosit yelled. "Do it again! Make it angrier! Get it to follow us! Keep hurting the bastard!"

And hurt it they did. Slashing, slicing, and hacking, the knights attacked frantically, their drunken movements so random and unpredictable that the demon could do little to stop them. Even though they were only managing to chip off a few pieces of it, it still affected the demon in the extreme, causing it immense pain as if it's nerve ends were being burned off.

"Keep going!" Stabby yelled. "Don't stop! Start moving to the tower! Lead it there, no matter the cost!"

But this was easier said than done. Although they were very effective at causing the demon harm, all of them attempting to lead it anywhere was hopeless. Most of them were still drunk enough that they didn't even _know _where the water tower was.

Seeing that they would never be able to do it on their own, Eclipsa stepped in and had her warnicorn ride over to them.

"Follow me again!" She yelled to them. "I'll lead you to the water tower, while you make the demon follow you!"

The knights followed this order without a word, and Eclipsa and the warnicorn trotted off towards the tower. The knights followed her, and in turn the demon followed them, unknowingly aiding in its own defeat.

**Meanwhile…at the tower**

Several hundred feet away, Marco had given up on any attempt to move the water tower. Not surprisingly, he wasn't able to budge it in the slightest. So instead, he was busy calculating where the demon had to stand in order to be hit with it.

"Okay…" He said, staring up at it. "Three steps back...no, that's not good enough. A little more to the right…? Yes! Got it!"

"Marco!" A shrill voice screamed from behind him.

He turned around to see Star running towards him, completely out of breath and Marco's hoodie slung over her shoulder.

"Star! Uh, before you say anything about me not trying to knock the water tower over-"

"It's okay." Star panted. "I kinda realized too late that you wouldn't be able to do anything. But don't worry! Eclipsa got the knights! They're gonna lead the demon here! After that, we'll just make it run into the tower and let it fall on top of it."

"Well, while you were gone, I figure something out." Marco said. He pointed to the spot he was standing on. "The demon needs to stand _right here _in order for the top of the tower to hit it."

"Are you sure?" Star asked. "We'll only get one shot at this, and we can't mess it up."

"Hey, we still don't even know if dropping the tower on it will work." Marco said. "But yeah. I'm sure. Right here."

"Got it." Star said. "Now, Eclipsa and the knights should be leading the demon here any moment. Hopefully they'll get he-"

"Princess Butterfly!" A sudden voice cried out. "We have led the demon here! What shall we do next?"

Both Star and Marco spinned around and saw what looked like the world's craziest game of "follow the leader." Eclipsa and her warnicorn were at the front, with the various knights behind her. Behind them was the demon, with several "injuries" coating its rock hide.

"Star! Marco!" Eclipsa yelled. "Where do we take this thing?

"Right here!" Marco yelled back, once again pointing at the ground. "But we need to knock over the tower first!"

"How?!"

"When I say so, go to the side!" Star yelled. "You _and _the knights! I'll take care of this!

Eclipsa clenched her teeth nervously, and hoped that Star knew what she was doing. She turned around to the knights and told them what Star had just said.

"Marco. I'm going to need you to go to the side as well." Star said. "This is all me."

"Are you sure you got this?" He asked.

"Yes! Just trust me!"

Maroc inhaled sharply. "Okay. I'll trust you. Just...please don't die. Not like this."

"I won't. I promise. Now get to the side." She said, which Marco obeyed, running to the side of the street and taking cover behind a random bench. Star turned back towards the now rapidly approaching line of people. She grabbed Marco's hoodie and held it out like she had done earlier, then yelled, "OKAY ECLIPSA! DO IT NOW!"

On her command, Eclipsa yanked the warnicorns reins to the right, and it followed, taking a sharp turn towards the sidewalk. Seeing Eclipsa go to the side, the knights also ran off to the side. The demon looked like it might follow them, but then it noticed Star holding the hoodie. Like a cat towards a laser pointer, the demon immediately turned all its attention towards Star, getting ready to charge at her. Eclipsa and Marco looked on anxiously, while Star readied herself for one final move.

The demon charged. Straight at Star, faster than it ever had before, each footstep creating a minor earthniquake. It tilted its head down and aimed its horns at her, as if it were a real bull. But it hadn't learned from any of the previous times. At the last second, Star leaped out of the was, and the demon shot past her and ran into the water tower, severely denting several of the beams holding it up. It attempted to back up, but couldn't.

"It's stuck!" Marco said. "It can't get out!"

The demon was indeed stuck. It's horns were wedged between several of the smaller support beams criss crossing between the larger ones, and it couldn't manage to get itself free.

'Damn it!" Star thought. 'If the tower falls now, then it'll just be hit with those metal beams! They won't do anything! It won't-'

But the problem fixed itself. With one final push, the demon ripped its head out, taking several of the beams with it. The water tower started to tilt over, with the larger beams starting to collapse. The bolts keeping the beams together started to pop out at insane speeds, and the tower leaned directly towards the demon.

"Star! Now what?" Marco yelled, hoping she had prepared for this.

"Now this! HEY! UGLY! " She shouted at the demon. It turned her way and growled, somehow even angrier than before.

Star held Marco's hoodie up in the air. "You want this hoodie?" She asked. "Go get it!"

She crumpled the hoodie up into a ball and threw it into the street, where it leaned in the exact spot that Marco had pointed out earlier. The demon, like a trained dog, ran towards it and lifted its foot up. It then brought it down, pulverizing the piece of clothing.

For a second, it almost seemed satisfied with itself. It simply stood in place, staring at its foot. But the same could not be said for the water tower. Unable to take the strain any longer, the main support beams snapped, and the tower fell. The demon saw a shadow cast over it, and turned around just in time to see the top of the tower come crashing down upon it. Instantly it burst and spread hundreds of thousands of gallons of water into the street, flooding everything. Eclipsa, Star, Marco, and even the knights held on to street lights, mail boxes, and other random items to avoid being swept away. As for Eclipsa's warnicorn, it had simply run away after the tower hit.

But as for the demon, the flames covering its body went dark, the lava encased in the cracks went jet black, and the demon literally fell apart as its rock body crumbled to pieces, releasing a cloud of steam as it fell silent. It was over.

After the gigantic wave of water had subsided, everybody looked at the pile of rocks, hoping that it was finally over.

Marco was the first to speak.

"It was after my hoodie?" He asked, looking over at Star. "How did you find that out?"

"Not really sure." She said. "But after all those times it charged at me while I held it out, I was sure that it would probably take a disliking to it."

"Well, thank god it did…"

"Quite." Eclipsa said, looking over at Star and Marco. "But I think you two owe me an explanation. Where exactly did this demon come from, and who unleashed it?"

"I think we should solve the mystery of the missing townspeople first." Marco said.

"Yes, of course. Also, remember to commend the knights. I think they nee-"

Like an old friend coming back to greet them, the pile of rocks started shaking and crumbling, while deep lines of fire started reappearing on its body. It wasn't over.

"Nonononono-" Star started, before Eclipsa grabbed her and Marco and forced them back.

"Back!" She yelled. "Get back!"

"Don't worry my queen!" Sir Stabby said, approaching the pile. "We will dispatch of this menace once and for-"

"No!" She yelled. "You get back as well! If _that _didn't kill it, then there's nothing you can do!"

The pile got up and started to reform itself. Just like back at the magic sanctuary, it came to life and roared once again, not letting anything in its way.

Star couldn't think. She could barely breathe. She looked at Marco, then at Eclipsa, and then back to the demon. The unkillable, monstrous demon. The current bane of her existence.

Looking at all of this, she knew one thing. This time, she was completely out of ideas.

And she had no clue how to stop any of this.

**End chapter 10.**

**A/N: Boy, that ended on a high note, right? I hope all the descriptions in this chapter were to yours guys likings, as well as the pacing. **

**But so many questions. Where are the townspeople? Why are the knights still there? How will they stop this demon? And how will Echo creek pay for all this damage? **

**Until next time.**


	11. Chapter 11: Ritual ex machina

**Aflame**

**Chapter 11**

**Ritual ex machina **

It had all been made worthless.

That was the thought that was going through Star's mind at the moment. All her efforts, everything she had just put into killing this demon and saving the town, had just been reduced to nothing.

The second the demon had gotten back up, Star had realized this. She didn't want to believe it, but she did. She was a fool. She should she called the military first thing and told them what was going on, like Marco had said. They would have already been here, and they would have blasted the demon to pieces. But she didn't, and now the town was paying the price.

Everybody hid. Eclipsa, Star, Marco, and the knights all dove into a random building before the demon had a chance to fully come back. When it did, it was met with an empty street, instead of it's now hated enemies. It huffed in annoyance, and then stomped off towards the forest of unlikely Spiderbites as if it was personal.

Everybody cringed as they witnessed the demon ripping trees out of the ground and throwing them hundreds of feet away, while at the same time picking up gigantic spiders and literally biting their heads off. After it grew bored of that, it headed towards the Johansen kingdom, not stopping it's rampage for a second.

Marco sighed and grabbed the bottom of his shirt, wringing it out. Everybody's clothes were still soaked from the giant wave the water tower had unleashed, and the water on their skin only reminded them of their failure.

"So…" Marco started nervously. "What do we do now-"

"AGHHHHH!" Star screamed, falling to her knees. She pounded her fists on the ground, either in frustration or anger.

"Star!" Marco said. "Don't yell so loud. That thing might hear you and come bac-"

"Don't care!" She yelled back. "It doesn't matter anyways! We failed. That's all there is. It can come back and kill me if it wants. There's nothing we can do to stop it anyways."

"Don't talk like that." Marco said. "We might not be able to do this, but like I said earlier, we'll just call in the military, and have them blow that thing straight back to hell."

He pulled out his phone and tried to turn it on, but couldn't. Cursing, he tried again. Then again. But still it didn't turn on. No matter how hard he tried, his phone remained dark.

"Never mind." He said. "Phones waterlogged. It probably won't ever work again."

Sir Stabby and other other knights slowly approached Eclipsa, unsure if they should go and try to fight the demon again or just leave.

"Queen Eclipsa?" Sir Stabby asked. "What...should we do?"

"For right now, just stay here." Eclipsa said. "You may be useful later. Or not. But don't go anywhere, and don't try to fight that thing."

"Right. We'll just...stand over here." Stabby said, walking back to the other knights, most of which were still drunk enough that they were starting to forget why they weren't in the knights den anymore.

Eclipsa walked over to Star and Marco, the latter of whom was unsuccessfully trying to comfort the former.

"Hey Star…" Marco said, in some effort to be helpful. "It's...okay. We-"

"No! It's not okay!" Star said, not having any of that. "What part of this is okay Marco?!"

Marco backed away from her, realizing it would be best in the moment to just leave her alone. Eclipsa, however, didn't share this sentiment. She walked over to Star and put her hand on her shoulder.

"He's right Star." She said. "It's okay. We can still figure something out. Just because this plan failed, that doesn't mean that there's no chance that we can fix this."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Star asked. "Who would know how to fix this? Who would know how to stop demons? I know a few people, but none of them are here at the moment. Tom is currently under Bren's control or something,"

"Wait, wha-" Eclipsa started, before Star interrupted her and kept going.

"The other Lucitors are probably under his control as well, the rest of the royals are probably hiding away at the moment, and there's _no _other way to get to the Underworld! So there's probably not a single person here at the moment who could help us with taking down a giant demon!"

"Demon, huh?" A voice said. "I can help with that."

Star looked to her left and saw none other than Janna standing there, covered in bandages, casts, and walking with a pair of crutches.

"Oh, hey Janna." Star said, waving to her. She then glared back in the direction of the demon. "So there's _nobody _we can turn to at the moment that can-"

Star stopped mid-sentence and did a double take towards Janna, who was slyly smiling.

"Wha-JANNA?!" She half-asked in shock. "What the heck are you doing here?! I thought you were in the hospital! How are you walking, even with those crutches?! You looked like you were at death's door just a few days ago! How are yo-"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Janna said, stopping Star's endless interrogation. "Just calm down for a second, will you? I'll explain everything in a second. But first…"

She looked around at the town. The wreaked, partially burning, demon-rampaged town. She paused for a moment to take it all in and sighed.

"Well, I guess this is what Needles was talking about." She said. "Whoever that "new guy" was, I suppose that this was his plan."

"No, not completely." Marco said, equally surprised as Star. "We met the person Needles was talking about. This whole thing, the demon just rampaging around town, it was just a distraction so he could escape. And he did. We could have tried to capture him, or tried to stop that demon. I'm...sure you can guess which option we picked."

"You _met _this guy?" Janna asked, impressed. "In the flesh?"

"Yeah." Star said, looking down at the ground.

"Hm. Neat. So how'd you find him? Did you do some good old-fashioned detective work? Get a tip from someone? Or something else entirely?"

"Something else entirely." Marco said. "We didn't find him. He told us where to go and he met with us himself."

Janna raised an eyebrow at this. "Why would he-"

"I don't know." Star said. "Although he did make a comment on how he want us to try and stop his plans. He said that without any competition, it's no fun. Then he talked about a bunch of other weird crap, seemed to have a mental breakdown for a moment, and then we decided that we had had enough and left."

"Did he tell give you his name?" Eclipsa asked, joining the conversation.

"He did." Marco said, looking back over at the demon, which was now punching the walls of the Johansen castle. "He said his name was Bren. I don't suppose that either of you know who that is…?"

"Can't say I do." Janna said, shaking her head. "Odd name though."

"Yeah, he said we were free to make fun of it."

"What else did he tell you?" Eclipsa asked.

"Well, he-"

"Can this _please _wait?" Star asked. "In case you haven't noticed, we still have a giant demon currently treating the town likes it's own personal rage room!"

"Right. Right." Marco said. "Wait, Janna, how did you get here? How did you get out of the hospital?"

"Ugh!" Star groaned. "Not important at the moment-"

"No, it's fine." Janna said. "Dude wants to know, so I'll tell him. Besides, because we're the current focus of the story at the moment, so that demon can't be doing anything _too _important. It's the rules."

Star tilted her head at Janna, which sounded something along the lines of a rusty metal gate moving one centimeter every second. "I...don't think those are how the rules wor-"

"So, there I was…" Janna said, ignoring Star. "I was in the hospital, just laying on that bed which I grew tired of a week ago."

"You haven't even been in the hospital for a week." Marco said.

"Who said that was my first time at that hospital? Also, don't interrupt again dude. Anyways, I was there, bored out of my mind, waiting for something interesting to happen. And… then something did. I heard what sounded suspiciously like a giant fire demon stomping its way down fifth avenue."

"How would you know what that soun-" Star started, before Janna put up her index finger, shushing her.

"So, I looked out the window. Took some painful maneuvering to angle myself so I could properly see, but I managed. Then I saw it. A literal war-demon from the pits of Underworld itself. Who knew that one of those things still existed?"

Marco was about to say something along the lines of, "Bren did," but he then remembered Janna's earlier comment about not interrupting her, so he stayed silent, continuing to listen to her story.

"I was shocked, naturally." Janna said. "I knew I had to do something. After all, I knew plenty about demons. I could help. I'm just that kind of person. But I wouldn't be able to escape without help, and none of the doctors would ever let me go. But then the weirdest thing happened. I still don't know who it was, or why they helped me, but I'm not complaining. So as I was busy staring out the window, trying to formulate some escape plan, the hospital went dark. It was a full-on blackout. The lights blinked out, the machines shut off, and I was alone. Or, at least, I thought."

Janna took a deep breath, as if struggling to tell the next part. "Somebody entered the room. Because it was so dark, I couldn't clearly see who it was. But I saw what they were holding. They had these." Janna held one of her crutches up. "They gave them to me, and told me that I had to leave. They told me that I had to help you guys. They disconnected me from that IV stand, which I still had, despite the fact that I don't think I needed it anymore, and then they left. Confused as I was, I knew I had to move. So I got up as as fast as I could without screaming in pain, got the crutches, maneuvered my way around the darkened hospital without anybody seeing me, and left. Then, after a while, I found you guys here. So, there you go. That's what happened. Very simple explanation."

"You...don't know who helped you?" Marco asked.

"That's what I said." Janna answered. "I've never heard their voice before, or seen them before. I don't even know what they looked like. So sorry, but I got nothing."

"Well, whoever it was, they wanted you to help us." Elclipa said. "That much is obvious. But speaking of which, you said earlier that you could help with this demon problem."

"Yup."

"So...what should we do?!" He asked. "Because we're kind of out of options here."

"Not entirely." Janna said. "So, here's what you gotta know. You can't kill it. Not normally. Only magic could kill a demon like that."

"Are you sure?" Eclipsa asked. "When the knights hit it with their swords earlier, it literally squealed in pain. I saw some pieces of it come off. Could we not just break it apart?"

"Nope." Janna said. "Those knights only managed to because they probably chipped off small pieces. This was intended in that things design. When those types of demons were first created hundreds of years ago, it was made with a low pain tolerance to small injuries. This way, when people attacked it, they would think that it could be killed with physical attacks. But it can't. If you just blow it up or something, the rocks that make up its body will simply reform, good as new."

"We tried to kill it earlier by dousing it in water…" Star said. "That managed to extinguish it for a minute or so, but then it just relit and came back to life."

Janna nodded. "Yeah, that's to be expected. Nothing like that's gonna do the trick. Although the outside may have looked extinguished at that moment, the inside was still flaming hot. It just needed a short while to rebuild the heat. Unless we can get the demon in an environment that's at like...absolute zero, no amount of cold will turn that heat off."

"ERGGG!" Marco yelled in exasperation. "Why does it have to be so hard to kill?!"

"Hey, these things were created with some of the strongest demon magic ever cast. Along with some of the most powerful spells. We should only be so lucky that so few of them were made, but only because they were just so damn hard to create."

"Thank for the exposition Janna, but that doesn't make me feel better." Marco said. "What kind of _monster _would use a creature like that in war?! That'd be like, a war crime or something."

"Marco, most of history is one giant war crime." Janna said. "And if you were a demon general, which would you choose? A soldier who dies easily, got afraid, and could balk at orders, or...would you have an almost unkillable, mindless drone who never got scared and followed every order you gave it without question?"

"..."

"Yeah, not so easy to pick. So here's the thing: We can't kill it. Not without magic. The type of magic that could level a city."

"So without magic, what can we do?" Star asked.

"I never said we didn't have magic…" Janna said.

Everyone looked at her, asking themselves if they had heard her correctly.

"What...do you mean?" Eclipsa asked. "Magic is dead. We _saw _the magic dimension fall apart in front of us. Star said she saw Glossaryck stay there and likely die with magic. How could there be any left?"

"There is another type of magic." Janna said. "Magic created by a being with far more power than Glossaryck."

"What?!" Marco. "Wasn't Glossaryck the equivalent of...God, or something? I thought he created magic."

"No, he was the first being ever created _by _magic." Janna said. "But we're not talking about the same kind of magic. You're talking about normal. I'm talking about demon magic. The type that created that monster that's wrecking the town. The type that keeps the flames of the Underworld forever burning."

"What's the difference?" Star asked.

"Normal magic was created either by chance or by a being with far more power than Glossaryck could ever dream of. But demon magic...that was definitely created by a supremely powerful being. But whoever this being was, they were much prouder of their creation than who or whatever created normal magic. So they didn't want demon magic to die out, no matter what. They disconnected demon magic from the main realm of magic, this ensuring its survival if the main magic dimension ever died."

"So _that's _why Tom still has his powers!" Marco said. "His powers aren't even connected to the magic dimension! He's powered by that demon magic!"

"Yup." Janna said. "That's also why the Underworld is still on fire. Without all that demon magic, it would be forever cast in an endless night."

"Hold on." Eclipsa said. "Is the being who created demon magic still out there?"

"Has to be." Janna said. "If it was gone, then demon magic couldn't exist. Instead of making another dimension to contain the source of demon magic, it contained that source within itself. And because a being like that is both immortal and probably unable to die altogether…"

"Demon magic would never die out." Star said.

"That's right." Janna said.

"One last thing before we discuss how we stop that demon." Marco said. "Janna...how do you even _know _all this? I mean, I understand that you probably know things that the rest of us couldn't possibly know, but even for you, all this talk about demon magic and Gods and what not….even for you it seems kind of far-fetched."

"Tom taught me." Janna said, not skipping a beat. "Last time we hung out in the Underworld, I asked him why his powers still worked, and he gave me some old books that nobody's read in centuries, and that's how I knew that. The Underworld world loved writing stuff down hundreds of years ago. So it was all there. Then I asked about some more stuff, and that's how I know about that demon and what it can do."

"Wait, you and Tom hang out?" Star asked. "That's news."

"Well, don't go blabbing about it." Janna said. "We're just friends. That's all. Don't make anything of it."

"Fine. If you say so." Marco said. "But…there's something about Tom we should tell you."

"Save it." Janna said. "I know that something horrible has probably happened to him, judging by the tone in your voice. But I can also tell that he's not dead. If he was, I would know."

"How can you te-"

"Trust me."

"Okayyyyy…" Marco said, suspicious. "But now, can you _finally _tell us what we're going to do?"

"Yeah, so everybody listen up." Janna said. Everybody, even the half-drunken knights, crowded around her to hear the plan.

"Like I said earlier, we can't kill it." She said. "So our only option is to send it back from whence it came. To the Underworld."

"How?" Star asked.

"I may or may not know how to perform a ritual that involves demon magic." Janna said. "Like with the stuff I just told you, Tom taught it to me from those books. It can send anyone or anything to the Underworld. It works the same way as Tom's teleportation thing."

"Well, that's perfect!" Marco said. "We can just send that damn thing back to the hole it crawled out of! I mean, Bren could just bring it back, but it would be a start."

"Unfortunately, it's not that simple." Janna said. "We can't just raise our arms like Tom and summon a flame tower to tear open a hole between the two worlds. We're gonna need some paint, some very specific objects, and we need to get near that demon."

"Paint?"

"Yeah. To paint on the ground."

"What?!" Marco said. "What are you gonna paint, a pentagram?!"

"Oh no no no no..." Janna said. "Pentagrams are used for summoning rituals. We're gonna paint a different symbol. Thankfully, it can be in any color, any type of paint. But don't worry about that, I'll get the paint and make the symbol on the ground. What I need _you _guys to do is get the objects necessary for the ritual."

"Objects?" Eclipsa said. "What kind of object are we talking about."

"It's kind of specific." Janna said. "All the rituals are. We need a gift from a friend that's no longer around, the blood of a brave and strong warrior, and something that looks demonic. I know it all sounds cheesy, but it's what Tom's book said, so that's what we're doing."

"Why do we need these objects?" Star asked.

"Everything requires a sacrifice." Janna said. "It's like...the first rule of demon magic."

"Then where do we find them?" Marco asked. "Are we going to have to run around town on a scavenger hunt?"

"Wait." Star said. "I think I already have two down. For something that looks demonic…"

Star took off her plastic demon horns and held it out in front of Janna. "Would these work?"

Janna stared at them, making various "hmm" noises. "I think it would." She said. "Quicker than having to find something. Yeah, that'll work. But you said you had two down. What was the other one you have?"

"A gift from a friend that's no longer around." Star said. "A few days ago, after you got out in the hospital, we went to visit Needles."

"Needles? You went to visit him?"

"Yeah." Star said. "And he gave us a tennis ball. Right before he left town. I mean, it was just so he could write us a secret message, but he did tell us to give it to you. Sorry we didn't, never got the chance. But I think that could work as a gift, if "gone" doesn't constitute as dead."

"I...guess that would work." Janna said. "Sucks that I didn't get to see him leave though. Would've been nice to say goodbye. But anyways, where's the tennis ball?"

Star inhaled sharply. "Not here. It's at Marco's house, so this might be a bit of a scavenger hunt like he said it would. But I know exactly where it is, so I can easily go there and get it."

"Well, that covers two objects." Eclipsa said. "But what about the last thing? The blood of a warrior?"

"Oh, I know where we can get that." Janna said. "I have a...sample, I guess you could call it, of Marco's blood at my house."

Marco slowly turned his head towards Janna, like some kind of statue in a horror movie.

"I'm sorry?" He said incredulously. "Did you seriously just say that you have a _sample of my blood _at your house?! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Are you that surprised?" Janna asked.

"YES!" Marco yelled. "Because you...you...actually, no, I'm not that surprised. That does sound like something you'd have, especially if it was pertaining towards me. But where did you even get it?"

"I took it from the town hospital at an...earlier date. I took it because a lot of rituals seem to need the blood of a warrior."

"Would I even qualify for that?" Marco asked himself. "I get that I'm stronger than most people, and have some knights training, but does the title, "brave and strong warrior" suit me completely? Would that blood even be accepted for the ritual?"

"Hey, I've heard of your neverzone adventures, and all the other crazy stuff you've done." Janna said. "Don't belittle yourself. You've definitely earned some kind of title from all that."

"Alright, but why didn't we just get some blood from them?" Marco said, pointing a thumb over at the knights. "Seemed quicker."

"Marco, their blood is probably more alcohol than actual blood at the moment, so I don't think that would do. No. We get the vial of your blood. It's at my house, in my dresser drawer. Go over there, and get it. Back doors probably unlocked, and it's it not I give you permission to smash a window. My parents aren't home at the moment anyways, and if they were they wouldn't want you rummaging around my room when they think I'm still in the hospital."

"I don't think anybody's home at the moment." Star said. "In any house."

"Oh, are you talking about the fact that everybody's disappeared?" Janna asked. "Yeah, I noticed that too. In fact, the hospital seemed emptier than usual as well. A lot of the doctors and nurses weren't there, and the ones that were seemed rather angry. I heard them grumbling about how they were "missing something." I think the whole town is at some big event."

"Then why didn't we hear about it?!" Marco asked. "If the rest of the damn town heard about it, why didn't we?"

"Maybe somebody didn't want you too…" Janna said.

Eclipsa stepped into the conversation. "Enough talk. That demon is still out there, and it's gonna take a while to get all those objects. Marco, go over to Janna's house and get the blood. Star, you get the tennis ball. Give Janna your horns. The knights will get some paint and lead the demon, _again, _to where it needs to go. Once done, everybody meet back here. Got it?"

"Got it!" They yelled, and all ran off. Star and Marco ran towards the neighborhood, while Eclipsa turned towards the knights to give them their orders.

"Sir Stabby!" She said, getting his attention. "If my Earth knowledge is correct, you can find some paint in the...hardware store, I believe it was called. Now, I'm going to get a map so we can figure out where it is-"

"No need!" Sir Stabby yelled. "I know where it is."

"You...you do?"

"Of course! It's right next to the bar. When me and the knights got tired of the den for a day, we went to that bar that people were always talking about. It was not as good as the knights den, but it was still satisfying. I remember that something called a hardware store was right next to it!"

"Oh." Eclipsa said. "Well, go get some paint. Any color you want. And don't forget a paintbrush as well! Go now, and come back here when you're finished!"

"Understood!" He yelled. "Higgs, my squire, come with me! Let us be off!" They then ran off, both of them seeming to know exactly where they were going.

"I really hope they don't screw that up…" Eclipsa mumbled, before looking over at Janna. "Where do we need the demon to go? Where do we need to take it this time?"

"Right here's actually good." Janna said. "As long as I have some space to do the ritual, anywhere is good. I just need to say some weird word and and send it right back to the Underworld. Just lead it here."

"Getting kind of tired of doing that, but okay." Eclipsa said, before turning to the other knights. "You heard her!Just like before. We're going to chase that monster down, take it back here, and send it right back to hell. So get ready to leave, because we can't wait any longer."

The knights all followed this order and scrambled around to try and find their weapons, which had been scattered by the earlier wave of water.

"Janna." Eclipsa said. "Hopefully, Sir Stabby and Higgs will be back in a few minutes with that paint. In the meantime, just stay here and be safe."

"I get it." Janna said. "Don't want me slowing you down. It's alright. I understand. Frankly, I'm more worried about Star and Marco coming back at the same time as you guys. We probably should have coordinated a specific time…"

"Well, if they're not here by then, then we'll do what we can. It's all we can do at this point."

"Queen Eclipsa!" Sir Dashing said suddenly. "We have found all our weapons! Shall we chase after the enemy…?"

"Yes!" Eclipsa said. "Go now! Don't wait for me! I'll catch up."

"Very well!" Dashing said. "Onward knights!"

They all yelled out some pitiful attempt at a war cry, then ran off down the street, heading for the demon. In the time it had taken Janna to explain everything, the demon had gone through the Johansen kingdom, the Spiderbite kingdom, and the Jaggy mountains, leaving a trail of destruction behind it like breadcrumbs for the knights to follow. (So much for the rules…)

As the knights disappeared from sight, Janna turned back to Eclipsa. "Aren't you gonna follow them?" She asked. "I know you don't have your warnicorn anymore, but you should still do something."

"No." Eclipsa said, earning a surprised look from Janna. "They have this. They're not as drunk as they were before, and they know what to do. They can lead it back here. I trust them."

"That's a _lot _of trust you're putting in them Eclipsa. Are you sure that's the best idea?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. But for now…" Eclipsa said. "I need to sit down."

Eclipsa walked over to the curb and sat down on it, leaning back against a lamp post. She turned towards the demon, still visible even from there, then looked away, as if growing tired of the sight.

"Are...you okay?" Janna asked. "I know we've only had a few real interactions with each other, but this doesn't seem like you."

"Oh no, I'm fine." Eclipsa said, despite the fact that she was plainly the opposite. "It's just...this whole debacle reminds me of something. A giant monster, attacking everything and everybody…I've seen it before. Back when Meteora when crazy and attacked the kingdom."

"Oh yeah." Janna said. "I heard about that. But it all turned out okay in the end, right? Meteora got turned back into a baby, everybody got their souls back, and you got the kingdom."

"If that's what you mean by okay." Eclipsa said. "But that's not really what I meant. It's what happened after that. After Meteora's rampage, I thought it actually was all okay. I got the kingdom! I can make everything right! I can bring freedom to monsters! But it didn't turn out okay. Just like with Meteora, Mina rose up and threatened to destroy everything we had worked so hard to make. It was a disaster, and I couldn't stop it myself because I hadn't prepared for it. I hadn't thought that she could come back and wreak havoc the way she did."

"But you stopped her too." Janna said. "You destroyed magic, and stopped Mina. Than Star and Marco merged the two worlds together, you and the mayor became the ruling duumvirate, and then we all lived happily ev...oh wait. I think I see what you're getting at."

"That's right." Eclipsa said. "Just like with Mina, all this is happening because _I wasn't prepared. _I didn't think that a giant demon could one day attack our town out of nowhere. Because of this…Bren. Ugh, I swear, those two better explain every single little thing after this mess is cleaned up. But back to the point. Let's say that the giant demon is Meteora. We take it down. The kingdom is saved. What happens then? Who's the new Mina? Bren? What does he have in store for us that I'm not going to be prepared for? That none of us could be?"

"No." Janna said. "Mina...she was something else. But this Bren, from what little information I got from Star and Marco...he's not Mina. They said that Bren told them he wanted them to try and stop him. He _enjoys _it. That's not Mina. We can't think of him as a new Mina, because they don't have the same mindset."

"I suppose you're right." Eclipsa said. "But how do we stop somebody who wants us to try and do just that? We'd just be giving him exactly what he wants."

"Like you said. We'll figure it out. But also like you said, we deal with that after _this _mess is cleaned up. Speaking of which...I think Sir Stabby is back with our paint. That was fast."

Eclipsa looked down the road and saw that Janna was correct. Sir Stabby and Higgs, both of them carrying several cans of paint and paint brushes, were sprinting towards them. They skidded to a stop a few feet away, and dropped what they were holding.

"We got it!" Higgs said. "We got the paint! And those brushes!"

Janna looked over the various things they brought with them. It was more than enough. Careful not to lose her balance, she rubbed her hands together and turned towards Eclipsa.

"I know you're not used to receiving orders, but you're gonna have to do this for me since I can't kneel down." She said. "So just paint what I tell you to paint, and hopefully it'll work in the end."

"Right." Eclipsa said, grabbing a brush and popping open a blue can of paint.

"What should we do?" Stabby asked.

Eclipsa looked at them and then pointed towards the other side of the street. "Go wait there." She said.

Stabby and Higgs glanced at each other, then did as Eclipsa told them to and walked away.

"So." Eclipsa said, looking back at Janna. "Where do I start?"

**Meanwhile…**

At about the same time all that was happening, Star and Marco were running at full speed, heading for their goals. The only thought in their minds at the moment was them telling themselves to not stop.

Reaching an intersection, Star stopped and quickly looked left and right.

"Alright." She said, gasping for air. "This is where we split off. Janna's house is to the right, and your house is too the left. Go there, get that blood, and _don't _wait for me."

"Got it." Marco said. "Still feel weird about it though."

"Yeah, well, at least it's your blood, not somebody else's."

"For some reason, that makes it weirder." Marco said, and then ran off down the right side of the street. Star then ran to the left and made a beeline for Marco's house.

'Come on, go faster.' She thought to herself. 'Can't stop. Ignore the pain. Ignore that cramp in your leg. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Agh! I SAID DON'T THINK ABOUT IT!'

Still running down the street, Star noticed that her earlier assumptions were correct. Just like the town, the entire neighborhood was empty. Nobody was outside, and she couldn't see anybody inside the houses either. But then again, she was running too fast too see them anyways.

A few minutes later, she reached it. 'There!' She thought. 'Made it!'

Putting in one last burst of speed, Star ran up towards the Diazes door and flung it open. But although time was of the essence, she couldn't stop herself from checking to see if anyone was still there.

"Hello?" She called out, her voice echoing throughout the house. "Is anybody here? Mr. and Mrs. Diaz? Anybody? Any...body?"

There was no answer. She was alone. The house was empty and deserted, just like everywhere else. Not a surprise, by Star had hoped that _somebody _would still be there.

Star shook her head and ran up the stairs to her room. 'Forget about it!' She thought. 'Demon now, disappearances later!'

She entered her room and ripped open her closet door, then started digging through the numerous piles of junk for the tennis ball. After five minutes of frantic searching, she found it, shoved it in her pocket then ran back out, almost forgetting to close the door behind her.

'Don'tstopdon'tstopdon'tstopdon'tstop.' She repeated in her mind, like a mantra. Even though her heart felt like it was on fire, she never ceased her running. The only other thought in her head at the moment was of Marco, hoping that he had found what he needed to.

She made it back to the intersection and right on cue, she saw Marco running back towards it as well, a small glass vial in his hand, which he was holding as far away from him as possible. When they both reached each other, they stopped their movement for a moment so that they wouldn't pass out on the spot,

"Nice-*wheeze* job." Star said, on her last leg. "I see...that you…found what you needed."

"Yeah." Marco said, equally exhausted. "But I don't want to know what Janna put in it that's preventing it from drying out."

Star straightened up in an attempt to painfully stretch her back out. "You can ask her...when we finish that ritual."

"Definitely. We should get going aga-" Marco suddenly gagged and covered his mouth, a hairbreadth away from throwing up. "Oh god. Just the thought of more running makes me want to throw up." He said. "I'm spent. We're either walking, or we can keep running and get a heart attack."

"Yeah, I know." Star said. "But maybe…" she looked to the right, where she saw an old bike conveniently lying against a fence, ready to be stolen.

"Maybe there's a faster way."

Maro looked over and saw the bike as well, then saw the look in Star's eyes.

Marco looked at her and shook his head. "No."

Star coughed and nodded at him. "Yes."

**Meanwhile...about a dozen blocks away**

"Yes. Just like that. Now a little more to the right. Make a triangle. Remember, make all the sides equal. And...yup. That's it."

Eclipsa set the paintbrush in the ground and backed away from the large circle she had drawn on the ground. After several minutes of painstakingly following Janna's orders to the letter, it was finally complete.

"Nice job." Janna said, admiring it. "Good thing I memorized the whole symbol. I mean, I hope."

Eclipsa frowned and looked down at the painted pavement. The symbol looked like something straight out of a low-budget horror movie. It was a large circle with three large triangles inside of it, presumably where the three objects would be put. Outside of them were random glyphs that looked like the doodles of a madman, completely and utterly incomprehensible. But if this was what Janna said would work, then it would have to do.

"Now we wait." Eclipsa said. "I hope Star and Marco get here before the knights do. If they don't, we're dead."

"Yeah. Kinda sucks." Janna said. "But at least we'll go out in a cool way. Killed by a giant demon. I can think of worst fates."

Eclipsa made a "pft" sound and looked away. "I can think of much _better _ones too."

They were both interrupted by a frantic ringing sound, and turned to their right to see Star and Marco riding a bike, with Star controlling it and Marco holding on to her, barely even conscious.

"Oh hey." Janna said. "They're back. Phew. I'm going to be honest with you, I was actually really worried."

"Weren't very good at showing it…" Eclipsa mumbled.

"Eh. That's just how I am. I also...hey, they're not stopping."

Eclipsa looked closer at the now rapidly approaching pair and saw that Janna was correct. Completely worn out, Star didn't even have the strength to make the bike brake, and they were now on a collision course with a street sign.

"Uh, guys!" Janna yelled. "You can stop now! You're close enough! You...oh no."

The bike headed straight for the sign, and Eclipsa moved towards them in some attempt to stop them. But it was already too late. The bike rammed itself into the sign, and Star and Marco flew off and slammed face first into the pole holding it up, then fell to the ground in a heap.

"Oh my god!" Eclipsa said, rushing over. "Star! Marco! Are you two alri-"

Ignoring both Eclipsa and the pain entirely, both of them put their hands in their pockets and then held up the objects they were sent to get, shoving them toward Eclipsa.

"Take them!" Star gasped. "Don't worry about us! We're just gonna stay on the ground. We need...we need…"

Not even able to finish her sentence, Star suddenly passed out from exhaustion, her body finally giving out and forcing her to rest. Marco then did the same a moment later.

Eclipsa was about to try and wake them up, but Janna stopped her. "Leave them." She said. "We have bigger fish to fry right now. I can hear something getting closer to us…"

Eclipsa listened carefully and heard what Janna was talking about. Unfamiliar a few hours ago, the now familiar stomping sound of the demon making its way down the street was getting louder, heading straight for them.

"They're back!" Sir Stabby said, jumping up. "They really did it.

"They did indeed…" Eclipsa said, before looking back to Janna. "What now? What's the plan?

"Get the objects Star and Marco have." Janna said. "Then get Star's demon horns and put each of them in one of those triangles. Get that demon in the circle, and leave the rest to me."

Right after Janna said this, another familiar sight presented itself to them. The knights turning a corner, with the demon following them. It looked more damaged than before, as did the knights. Evidently there had been a bit of a battle. The knights showed signs of this too. Many of them had burn marks or large gashes lining their bodies, and Sir Dashing even had a broken arm.

"THIS WAY!" Eclipsa yelled. "TOWARDS THE CIRCLE!"

The knights, almost as exhausted as Star and Marco were, ran towards the circle, shedding their armor to try and run faster. Eclipsa grabbed the objects out of Star and Marco's hands, grabbed Stars demon horns and then put them all in a separate triangle. Once done, the objects seemed to vibrate and lifted themselves an inch above the ground.

"It's already starting to work." Janna said, moving towards the circle. "Okay. Get out of the way. The moment it enters the circle, I'll only have a second to say the word that'll prevent it from leaving. Then I just do what Tom does with his arms...and with luck, it'll work."

Eclipsa gulped and moved to the side of the street, starting to get flashbacks of their failed water tower plan. Only this time, there was almost no chance for yet _another _backup plan.

It was almost there. The knights ran toward Janna and the circle, and they leaped out of the way an inch from hitting it. The demon roared and tried to stop, but physics forced it to keep moving and it entered the trap zone.

Almost instantly, Janna quickly yelled out, "LAQUEUS!", and the demon stopped the second it hit the edge of the circle, stopped by an invisible barrier. It looked around and pounded on it with its fists, but it was no use. The circle had it completely trapped.

"It-it worked!" Eclipsa said. "Quickly! Send it back! Finish the ritual!"

Janna inhaled sharply and let go of her crutch's, preparing to raise her arms.

"_Pleaseworkpleaseworkpleasework." _She said to herself, still surprised that the barrier that kept the demon in was holding.

With the thoughts of the demon vanishing at the front of her mind, Janna raised her arms skyward, praying to anybody that was listening that she would succeed.

And evidently, somebody was listening. After she had pointed her arms towards the sky, the circle glowed brightly and unleashed a wall of flame that surrounded the demon. Janna could see it's silhouette slowly vanish as the ritual forced it to go back to the Underworld. It's roar could be heard one last time as it disappeared entirely, along with the wall of fire, revealing nothing but scorched pavement and the burned out remains of the objects that had been used to make it all so.

They all stared at the circle, hardly believing their own eyes.

It was over.

For _real _this time.

"Ha..haha...hahahah!" Eclipsa said, laughing in disbelief. "It worked! It actually worked! Magic _is _still around. Well, some of it anyways. I can hardly believe it. I just...wow."

"Hooray." Janna said, emotionless and reverting back to her regular self. "But now I think I better get back to the hospital, before-!"

Unable to keep her balance without the crutches, Janna toppled over and fell to the ground. She simply laid their for a few moments, sighing.

"Before that." She said. "So, we should-"

"No." Eclipsa said. "Have you forgotten? This isn't over. We still have to find the townspeople. We still don't know where they are."

"Ummm...we might know where they are." A tired voice called out.

Janna and Eclipsa looked over at Star, who had just recently woken up. She was attempting to push herself up, but wasn't making much progress.

"You do?" Janna asked. "Where would they be?"

"I know this is gonna sound weird, but I think they're all at castle Avarius." Star said. "When me and Marco were pedaling over here, we passed that place and saw several people through one of the windows. The rest all had their curtains drawn for whatever reason, but there were a _lot _of people in there. Looked like they were having a party."

"A...party?" Eclipsa said. "At _castle Avarius?!_ Who in their right mind would throw a party there? And-and if the whole town is there, how we could not know? How could _I _now know?! I'm the Queen! Why didn't anybody tell me about this? And do those people even know that there was a giant demon attacking the town just a few minutes ago?!"

"Hey." Sir Dashing said, join the conversation. "Why don't you go over there, and just check it out? The easiest way to get the answers will be to go straight to the source."

"That's...a good idea." Eclipsa said. "Somehow, it seems that alcohol increased your intelligence."

"Oh, we're not drunk anymore." Lady Whosit said. "That wore off while we were leading that demon here. But we remembered enough that we knew we had to lead it here. Now if you'll excuse us, we're going back to the knights den. Maybe bandage ourselves up. You can figure out this mystery on you own. Us knights fight. Not go and solve puzzles."

"If you came with us, you could tell everybody about the things you just did, how you saved the town, and how you're not the protectors of Mewni again." Eclipsa said. "That is what you wanted, right?"

All of the knights looked at each other.

"Oh yeah, of course." Sir Stabby said. "Let's go."

"Brilliant idea. I had almost forgotten about that, somehow." Dashing said, not even acknowledging his broken arm.

"Recovering from drunkenness would probably do it…" Eclipsa said, helping Janna up. "Alright everybody. Let's go. Star, you can stay here with Marco if you're too tired to walk."

"No I'm fine!" Star said, finally managing to get up. "We came this far, we're gonna see it out to the end. Come on Marco, get up."

Marco groaned and slowly picked himself up off the ground, leaning on Star to prevent himself from falling over. The two finally managed to angle themselves in a way that they were leaning on each other in order to walk, and that seemed to work somehow.

"Good." Eclipsa. "Let's go."

They set off. Walking through the deserted and destroyed streets of Echo creek, surrounded by utter silence. Eclipsa looked at the rubble of one of the buildings and winced.

'This presents a whole new problem.' She thought. 'Who knows how much this is all going to cost to fix up. The mayor isn't going to be happy. At least it didn't look like the neighborhoods were attacked, just the shopping district and some of the kingdoms. I wonder if the monarchs are even aware of this, or if there're all at castle Avarius like the rest of the town. Who even knows what's going on at this point?'

The rest of the walk was also met with silence, with none of them saying a word. After all the noise, all the sounds of crashing and destruction they had just heard, some silence was a nice change of pace.

But the silence was interrupted when Star weakly said, "We're here. Castle Avarius."

Eclipsa stared up at the intimidating building. It had been rebuilt entirely different than before, having more of a house shape than a traditional castle. But Star seemed to have been telling the truth. The blinds on all the windows were drawn, but one of them wasn't closed completely, and through it Eclipsa could see several people moving around inside. None of them were looking out the window.

"Umm, I guess we should go in." She said, not quite sure on how to react to this. She was more worried about how the townspeople would react. This would not do the Mewnian high council well in the PR department. Not after all the destruction the demon had caused.

Cautiously, Eclipsa slowly went up the walkway that led to the door. She took a quick glance behind her to make sure that everybody was still there, then knocked on the door three times.

After a second of waiting, it swung open to reveal Marco's old sensei, Brantley. Holding a bag of money in one hand and some random papers in the other, he looked nothing short of overjoyed...as did everyone else behind him. Just like they had suspected, it seemed that the whole town was there.

"Se-sensai?" Marco said. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey guys!" He said cheerfully. "Marco, Star, and...Queen Eclipsa. It's an honor. It's nice to see you all! You're here kinda late though. A lot of people were wondering where you were. Speaking of which, _where _were you?"

"Oh no." Eclipsa said out loud, realization hitting her in the face. "You...have truly no idea, do you?"

"Idea about what?" Brantley, before taking a quick look behind her, and noticed the sorry state the town was in.

"Whoa!" He said, walking past her and look at the destruction. "What the heck happened to the town?! It looked like a bomb went off! Like, everywhere!" He then saw Marco and rushed over to him.

"Marco! What happened!" He yelled. "Who did this?"

Marco, still leaning on Star in order to stand, struggled to give him an answer. "Umm...well, you see-"

"Aliens?!"

"No…"

"Karate hating demons?!"

"I mean, the last part is correc-"

"Terrorists?!"

Marco glanced over towards Star. "Could-could Bren be classified as a terrorist?"

Star's eyes darted to the ground in thought. "Umm...maybeee?"

"Oh no! The dojo!" Brantley cried out. "I gotta see if it's okay!" Not saying another word, Brantley rushed passed them into the streets, disappearing from sight.

"Oh boy." Marco. "This is not going to be easy, is it?"

"No. It's not." Eclipsa said. "But it's better late than never. Come in. Let's go inside. Find out what's happening, and then make the announcement."

They all entered the castle. (Mansion.) Just like Brantley had been a minute earlier, everybody inside seemed as happy as could be, holding bags of money and pieces of paper. Some of them were even tearing the papers apart, throwing them in the air like confetti.

It was definitely everybody. The whole town. All humans, Mewmans, and monsters. There was no shortage of diversity here. It looked like that lock-in at the community center that Star had tried in order to make everybody get along.

And in the center of it all, Brudo himself, wearing a gigantic smile and signing several pieces of paper, as well as handing out bags of money. He seemed to be greatly enjoying himself.

Eclipsa frowned and pushed pass several people to get to him. The others followed suit, and once Brudo saw them, his smile dropped, although he quickly took on a new one a second later.

"Ah! Queen Eclipsa." He said. "Glad you could make it. I was wondering where you were. You're just in time as well. I was about to...oh, excuse me for a moment."

Brudo walked over to someone holding a piece of paper, took out an ink stamp, then stamped the paper and walked back to Eclipsa. From what Star could see, the stamp seemed to say, "paid for by Lord Brudo Avarius."

"Sorry about that." He said. "I'm busy finishing things up here. But anyways, why did you get here so late? I thought I sent somebody to find you."

"What...the heck...is going on?" Star asked. "What is this? Why is everybody here? Do they seriously not know what's been going on outside?"

"If something's been happening," Brudo said. "Then we wouldn't know. Except for the door, every part of the castle is completely soundproof. You couldn't hear a thing from outside! I had it made that way so we didn't have to hear all the noises of cars and planes and other things we didn't want to get used to."

"That explains part of it." Eclipsa said. "But what's happening? Why is everybody here?"

Brudo rubbed his beard and smiled. "I don't know why _you _don't know about it," He said. "But I had an idea a day or so ago. I thought, "Hey, the Avarius family is distrusted and hated. You should do something to fix that." So I did. Using the family wealth, of which there is a _lot,_ I send out messengers all over the town to tell that at 11:15, this will happen: Lord Brudo pays off all your taxes! Come to castle Avarius and get the cash you need! We Avarius's aren't bad! We just want to help you all! So that's exactly what I did. Since both the humans and the Mewmans, and now the monsters all hate paying these taxes, I figured the best way to get people to stop hating my family was to get rid of them all! And it worked! People are having a great time!"

"Brudo, you're basically paying them to stop hating you." Star said.

"Yeah, but it worked!" He said. "Now the Avarius family will no longer be seen as evil! Now we shall be seen as a good family, who does not distrust or hate others!"

"That's...nice." Eclipsa said. "But do you know what just happened outside?"

"No." Brudo said. "Why, what happened?"

They were interrupted by a loud scream coming from the entrance. Everybody turned to see several people crowding around the doorway, horrified by what they were seeing outside. More people flocked to the entrance and had similar reactions, stunned by the sight of the destroyed town.

"That." Eclipsa said. "That happened. While you all have gotten your taxes paid for, me, Star, Marco, Janna, and the knights have been risking our lives to fight a gigantic demon that attacked the town."

Brudo looked stunned. Instead of the town, everybody's attention was now on Eclipsa's words.

"A...giant demon?" Brudo asked.

"Yes. But don't worry, we sent it back to the Underworld." Eclipsa said. "But the town and several of the kingdoms sustained heavy damage."

"What!" A voice from the crowd said. It parted to reveal King Spiderbite, along with the other royals. Every last one of them was here. The Pigeons, the Ponyheads, the Jaggys, even Moon and River were seen with the bunch, which was nothing short of a surprise.

(No, not even the royals were safe from Earth tax.)

"Ummm...the Spiderbite, Johansen, and Jaggy kingdoms." Eclipsa said. "Those are the ones I saw."

"No!" King Spiderbite yelled, before rushing out. The rest of the royals followed suit a second later.

Then the people left. Slowly, and one at a time, the people of Echo creek left the castle, unsure of what to do with this news. Most of them went to check in their houses and shops, but maybe a few were just leaving because everyone else was. In the crowd, Star could see Marco's parents walking out as well, holding Mariposa. They had known as well.

"Brudo pays off all your taxes day" was ruined.

"Well…" Eclipsa said. "I believe it would be right to hold an emergency council meeting. As for you two…" She said, looking over at Star and Marco. "You two are going to tell us everything you saw, everything Bren said, and what you think we should do with him. Then I'm going to have your friend Janna tell us everything she read about in those books. Then you're going to tell us about what happened to Tom.

"Of course…" Star said, inching closer to Eclipsa. "But first, I should tell you something."

Star leaned towards Eclipsa's ear and started whispering. "I want you to have someone keep an eye on Brudo."

"What? But why?"

"Because." Star said. "Do you really think it's just a _coincidence _that Brudo had this pay taxes day on the same day Bren talked to me and Marco and unleashed that demon?"

"Do...do you think he's in league with Bren?"

"Maybe. He could be. I don't know why Bren would make him do this, unless Brudo did it himself so nobody in the town would get hurt. But if Bren himself ordered it, then I would have no idea why."

Eclipsa looked over at Brudo, who was busy staring into space.

"Okay." She said. "I'll send someone to keep an eye on him. But now I want to know why _we _didn't hear about this tax payoff day. Brudo!"

"Huh? Oh, um, what is it?" He asked.

"Why didn't we know about this?" Eclipsa asked. "And why did the town know?"

"Listen." Brudo said. "I sent messengers, my children, to go around the town. The human, Mewmans, and monster sections, and tell everybody what I was doing. They all showed up. Every last one of them. Except you guys I guess."

"What...time did you send these messengers?" Marco asked.

"11:05." Brudo said. "And most of them arrived five minutes later. I've never seen so many people so excited for something."

"Well, that explain why me and Marco didn't know." Star said. "Bren called us to the magic sanctuary at 11:00. But why didn't Eclipsa know?"

"I sent Dudo to the monster temple." Brudo said. "Unless he fell asleep in route. He does that sometimes."

"That's why I didn't know?" Eclipsa said. "Because your messenger feel asleep on the way there?"

"Probably!" Brudo said. "Sorry about that, I should have seen that coming."

"I...you know what, forget it." Eclipsa said. "Forget all of it. Thank you for trying to do something nice Brudo, and I'm sorry that it was ruined. But we have to go now, there is a lot of work to be done. Things to be rebuilt. People to counsel over their destroyed property…"

"I understand." Brudo said. "I wish you luck."

"Yeah. Bye."

They left. Eclipsa, Star, Marco, Janna, and all the knights headed back into the wrecked town, where several people were standing in the streets, wishing that they weren't seeing right.

"Boy, this is gonna be a fun Mewnian council meeting." Marco said sarcastically. "Can't wait for it. It's gonna...suck."

"At least we'll have something to talk about." Star said.

They entered the streets, and left the castle behind them.

Brudo watched them go with a sigh, then quickly shut the door. His expression changed back into his signature scowl. Grumbling, he walked over to his favorite chair and sat down in it, before a faint ringing interrupted his attempt at some sort of quiet time. Without even looking at it, Brudo pulled the small black device out of his pocket and held it up to his ear.

"Well?" He asked. "Was that good?"

"It was perfect." Bren answered from the other end. "Good job. They have no idea."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Brudo responded, his mind going back to Star and Marco. "Butterfly and her little boyfriend seemed somewhat suspicious."

"Let them. Who cares? At best, all they'll do is investigate your house. But the only sign of my presence is the thing you're holding in your hand. As long as you safeguard that, it'll be fine."

"I know that." Brudo said. "But I have a question for you."

"Ask away."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you make me pay off everyone's bills to make the townspeople come here? Wouldn't your revenge be better if you killed a couple of people? Make Butterfly suffer even more?"

"Well, that's just it." Bren said. "You see Brudo, I knew that if I had my demon kill anyone, then it would only end in two ways. One, Butterfly would get all sad and miserable, thinking it was her fault. She would go into a depression. Two, she would do the opposite and fly into a rage, making multiple rash and stupid decisions in her quest to find me. Either of these things happening would make it less fun to take revenge, so I had you do the whole tax thing to prevent it."

"Hm. You better give me what I want when this is all over. That was my entire family fortune. Every last gold coin that I dug up. We're broke now, even more so than before we got the mansion back."

"Don't start making demands." Bren said. "Don't forget who's in control here. I have power."

"If we're discussing power here," Brudo said. "Then I'm going with physical. Like that demon. That was effective. Why don't you just keeping doing that?"

"Patience Brudo." Bren said with a sigh. "One must have patience. Physical power is but one of the many types of power, and there are...very, very many. In fact, in my personal opinion, physical power is somewhat in the lower end of the spectrum. With physical power, all you can do is punch someone in the face, and that's that. But with other types of power, you can do so much more."

"Such as…."

"Well, take political power for example. With that, you can become the most powerful person in the world, with great weapons of mass destruction at your command. Or influential power. You can convince dozens, if not hundreds of people to do whatever you want like mindless drones. But none of them, not one, can compare to the most useful type of power there is. Knowledge. Pure, raw knowledge. With that, you can achieve anything, if you're willing to.

"Of course." Brudo said, nodding despite the fact that Bren wasn't even present at the moment. "I understand. But I...just want this all to be worth it."

"It will be. Now, that's everything I wanted to tell you. So we'll be in touch. Goodbye."

Not bothering to let Brudo get another word in, Bren hung up on him. Brudo looked at the device, sighed, put it back in his pocket and then rubbed his face with his hands.

"It'll all be worth it…" He said to himself.

"I hope."

**End chapter 11**

**A/N. Alright, a few things.**

**One, the next chapter may take much longer to upload. Due to school issues, I won't have as much time to write, so sorry about that.**

**Two, I feel like this chapter was a bit of a mess, so I hope it was...understandable, and good. I hope that the scene That weren't included, like the knights getting the demon to follow them again and Marco ****getting the blood weren't that necessary. But, let me know what you guys think.**

**Three, for everyone enjoying the longer chapters, (this one is over 10,000 words, my god,) it may or may not last, depending on how things go.**

**Four, the person who broke Janna out of the hospital is probably exactly who you think it is. But everything's for a reason, even that.**

**Until...next time.**


	12. Chapter 12: Meeting madness, part 2

**Aflame **

**Chapter 12**

**Meeting madness, part 2**

…

Begin typed recording #21355

Date: 6/6/19

Emergency Mewnian high council meeting #3. Total meeting number overall: 58

Reason for emergency meeting: Giant demon sent from Underworld to destroy the town defeated/sent back to the Underworld, meetup of royals to discuss the proper/next course of action.

Secondary reason: Star Butterfly, Marco Diaz, and Janna Ordonia (who is currently on leave from the hospital by order of the Mewnian high council,) will explain everything they know about this event and the events leading up to it, as well as the identity of the mastermind behind the attack and what he/she wants.

**Members present based on location and/or position:**

Ruling Duumvirate: Mayor of Echo creek, Queen Eclipsa Butterfly.

Butterfly kingdom: Star, Moon, and River-

"NO!" Queen Spiderbite yelled, interrupting Shawn's loud typing. "None of that crap! This meeting starts now! No matter what the rules are. Forget the roll call. We are dealing with this right this instance, no more distractions."

Shawn stopped typing mid-sentence, and looked over at Eclipsa, who didn't notice this and instead glared at the Spiderbite Queen.

"This is how we do things." Eclipsa said. "This is how we keep order, even in moments of chaos. And since this is most certainly a moment of chaos...we need order."

"Is that so?" The Queen said. "Well then, why are we here, instead of back at our kingdoms, _restoring order_?! Most of our citizens are still trying to collect all the pieces of their homes after that demon smashed them to pieces! I should be there, helping them! Not here!"

"You can be there in a while!" Eclipsa yelled, quickly losing her patience. "But this meeting is more important. I don't care that most of you don't want to be here, but if what we know is correct, then that demon, that thing that just attacked us, it's just the beginning. There's going to be more. The person who unleashed likely has a lot more in store for us."

"And who unleashed it?" King Ponyhead asked. "You still haven't told us that. We're all still in the dark here."

"That's why I called the meeting." Eclipsa growled. "But as I was saying, we're here so we can figure out what to do when a similar event occurs again, among other things. Yesterday was a disaster. All of you were at Brudo's mansion getting your taxes paid off, and in the meantime the demon was outside, rampaging around. The only people fighting it were me, Star, Marco, Janna, and the knights, who were so drunk for most of it that they were hardly themselves. We can't, and will not, let that happen again. We need to all be ready, and not somewhere else."

None of the royals spoke. Despite the fact that they were still angry, Eclipsa's word seemed to be getting through to them. None of them wanted something like this to happen again, especially if _they _were the ones in harm's way.

"Fine." Queen Spiderbite said. "I'll...stay here and listen to this meeting. But it better be good, and we better know every single detail about why this happened. Because if it happens again, then I don't want to be the person who just stands by without knowing anything about what's going on."

Everyone in the room nodded to this, also wanting to join in a future fight. Just like Eclipsa hoped they would.

"Excellent." Eclipsa said. "Then-"

"We still don't need the roll call." King Jaggy said. "I agree with the others. Let's start this now and formulate a plan. We have no idea when the next attack will occur, if at all."

Eclipsa groaned and consented to this. "Fine." She said. "Fine! We'll skip the roll call if it saves time. Shawn, mark that down, will you?"

Shawn nodded and wrote, "Roll call skipped because royals pissed or whatever," on his typewriter.

"Now, we can start." Eclipsa said. "So, I think the first thing to do-"

"Is to come up with a plan to prevent this from ever happening again." Rich pigeon said, attempting to finish Eclipsa's sentence. "Right? Right. So, I think that I have come up with a plan that is not only _brilliant_, but will most certainly work. We should-"

"Actually…" Eclipsa said, getting tired of being interrupted. "We have...a _lot _to discuss before we even get to the plan making. I'm sorry, but there are still many things that you do not know, and we must talk about those before we get to the main point. So the first thing we're doing is a damage assessment of the town and the kingdoms. Does anyone know what we're looking at? How much is this going to cost to fix?"

"Um," Marco started. "It's not good. A bunch of people were sent out this morning to look at all the damage, and it's...it's a lot. It's something."

"How much?" Eclipsa asked, expecting the worst.

Marco inhaled sharply. "They estimated...oh boy. They estimated it's going to cost over 25 million dollars to fix everything. Maybe more."

Every person in the room looked stunned at this. Even though most of them didn't really understand Earth money, anybody with half a brain would know that twenty million of anything was a truly enormous amount.

"Oh. I...see." Eclipsa said nervously. She looked over at the mayor, who looked crushed at the news. She then turned to the royals, who also looked rather worried at this news.

"Why is so high?" Queen Jaggy asked. "Surely the creature didn't do _that _much damage?"

"Oh, but it did." Star said. "Every footstep that thing took on the road made a giant pothole several feet wide. Each of those _alone _is going to cost...maybe a hundred each? So you guess how much it would cost with it running around everywhere for like an hour and a half. Not to mention the dozens of wrecked buildings and shops, as well as vehicles. Honestly, we're lucky it's only 25 million. And that's still only an early estimate! It could be double that, who knows…"

"Duly noted." Eclipsa said. "But what about the kingdoms and the Mewnian sections? How much money is that going to cost to fix?"

"We have an estimate as well." King Johansen said. "After surveying the damage done to the Johansen, Spiderbite, and Jaggy kingdoms, as well as the numerous villages, we believe it would cost around 5000 gold coins to revert it to it's pre-demon attack state. And we did the math, and that would come around to…6,475,000 dollars. Not cheap. Not at all."

"My god…" Eclipsa said. "Okay. Anybody have any good ideas on how we're going to pay for all this?"

"Uh, shouldn't it be easy?" Marco asked. "I mean, you guys are all the royal family's! Shouldn't you be the richest people in town? I feel like if you all pooled your money, we should be able to pay for all this easily enough."

River sighed and shook his head. "Marco, my boy, if it were only that easy. There was a reason we were all at castle Avarius yesterday. The royal wealth is not what it once was. For any of us."

"Why? What happened?" Marco asked. "Did somebody steal all your money or something?"

"In a manner of speaking…" King Ponyhead said. "You see, not long after the merger of our two worlds, your countries government realized our wealth and stepped in, asking for it. In response, they said they would make us even richer and wealthier! But we didn't. They took our money, and we got nothing."

"What!" Marco exclaimed. "Why would they do that? How did they contact you?"

"By computer!" Queen Jaggy said. "We all got those computer things people kept talking about and created one of those email accounts. But then some people saying that they were with your government started contacting us and asked for our money, and they said we would get some in return, but we didn't."

Marco blinked at them. "Wait, what?"

"It's a shame." Queen Jaggy continued. "We thought that this world would be happy to have us, but all they really wanted was our money. We sent the gold coins to where they said to send them, but they never repaid us."

Marco struggled to respond to this, but managed to get a few words out after forcing himself to. "Guys...I think you were all scammed."

"Scammed?"

"Yeah. By people claiming to be the government, when in reality, they weren't. People fall for it all the time. Somebody contacts you by email asking for money, claiming that you would get money, but only they get money and then you're left broke."

"Wait. So the government...never actually contacted us?" Rich pigeon asked.

"No." Marco said. "It was just a couple of people looking to get rich quick. And judging by what you said, they managed to do it…"

"Oh." Princess Jaggy said. "I guess that explains it. It also explains why the government said they didn't know what we were talking about when we told them to give us our money back."

"So is that it?!" Star said. "It's all gone? Because you were all too stupid to notice an obvious scam? Why didn't you take a basic computer class before you made an email account?!"

"Girl, we did!" Pony head interjected. "It was boring, and a complete waste of time. Nothing I didn't already know. But they didn't say anything about those scammers! In fact, it said to always trust people on the internet!"

"Are you kidding me?" Marco said. "The first rule of the internet is too never trust anything anyone ever says! Where did you get that computer class?"

"The government Earth-turd!" Pony head said. "I don't know why nobody else mentioned this, but the same people who stole our money also offered us online computer classes through email, and that's what they told us! Then they scammed us and...and...oh, wait, I think I see what happened. It was all planned from the start, wasn't it? Hm, I guess we really should have seen that one coming."

"Yeah. You shoulda!" Marco said. "But you know what, doesn't matter anymore. Are you sure _all _the money's gone?"

"Most of it." River said. "Maybe a few coins left for each of us, but nowhere near enough to pay for the damages to the kingdoms and the town."

"Fantastic." Eclipsa said. "Anyone else? Buff frog? Do you have any ideas?"

Buff frog, who had been sitting in nervous silence the entire time, snapped to attention and responded like a person reading a script directly off the page.

"Oh, uh, no." He said. "Monsters do not have much money right now. Busy sorting out lives, and just trying to get along with Mewmans and humans. Sorry, can't help."

"Uh. Are you okay Buff frog?" Star asked him. "You don't sound like yourself. You sound...worried."

"Yes. I am fine." He said, sounding even more worried than before. "Just a bad cold. Spreading around monster village like wildfire. Not good."

"A cold?" Marco said, raising an eyebrow. "Dude, it's the middle of summer."

"Ummm...monster physiology different than your own!" He said, his voice panicky. "We can get colds randomly, at any time, no matter the season!"

"So...there's nothing we should worr-"

"Nope!"

"Righhhht." Marco said, unconvinced, but also unwilling to investigate further.

Globgor gave Buff frog a strange look, then spoke up. "Isn't there still some we can do?" He asked. "Just because the royals are bankrupt, that doesn't mean that there's no hope. Didn't Brudo just pass out hundreds of those money bags yesterday? If everybody uses those, I bet it could help a lot. Not to mention that some humans and Mewmans might want to pay for the damages themselves."

"Globgor, no offense, but I don't think that's gonna happen." Marco said. "I doubt there is a single person in this town that wouldn't pay for something with someone else's money if it was both legal and given to them. Besides, that money was for taxes, and while yes, some people might use it to pay for the damages to their own property, many of those people will just want to use it to do what it was given to them for: Pay their taxes. They're gonna want one less thing to worry about after the demon fiasco."

"But...won't they help others in need?" Globgor asked. "If other ask for help, won't they help them?"

"Some of them might." Janna said, putting herself in the middle of the conversation. "But there are two types of people in this world. Those who give charity, and those who don't. And the latter group greatly outweighs the former."

"Then...we'll just tell everybody that they will have to give the moneybags over so the town can be fixed." Globgor said. "We'll do it peacefully, and there will be no need for any ruckus. We can use all that money to get a start on fixing the town."

Janna chuckled at this. "Viva la revolución."

"What?"

"Don't tell people to do that." Janna said. "Unless you want a full fledged riot on your hands. Besides knowledge, money is the greatest type of power there is. And people do _not _like it when their power is taken away. They'll do anything to make sure it stays theirs."

"Okay, enough." The mayor said, standing up. "We have to figure this out. If we don't, the town will be bankrupt, we'll all lose our jobs, and by the end of the day we'll be selling chocolate bars out of a convenience store."

"Is this even a job?" King Pony head asked no one in particular. "Do we get paid for coming to these meetings?"

"No, it's not a job." Eclipsa said. "It's your _duty _as monarch. But I'll put it in Mewni terms for you all. If we don't find a way to fix the town and the kingdoms, and do it so that we don't run out of money, then the citizens will get no money, they'll get angry, and just like said, we'll have a riot on our hands."

"Exactly." Star chimed in. "So _figure _it out. Yes, things look grim, but if you all worked together, I'm sure we could find a solution."

All the royals were silent.

"Sorry, I got nothing." Queen Jaggy said. "We have no money, the town doesn't have enough money, we don't know what to do."

"Hold on." Marco said. "Don't we get like...thousands of tourists every week? Every month we get the monthly assessment on how much money the tourism makes, and then the town gets the money. The last assessment was a few days ago. Where's that money going?"

"Oh that? It's gone." Ponyhead said. "I used it."

"What! What for?!"

"The Ponyhead show, of course." Ponyhead said, rolling her eyes. "You see, I used that money to pay off every television provider in the entire country to host my show. Ratings are crap, sure, but still! We're everywhere now."

"Are you kidding me." Marco said. "How did you even get ahold of the money?!"

"I had my annoying sisters steal it." She said. "Turns out they were good for something after all!

"S-stole it?! That's illegal yo-"

"Be quiet Earth turd!" Ponyhead yelled. "That show is important to me! It's like, one of the only things I got!"

"Not really!" Marco yelled at her. "I- oh, forget it. Just forget it. We'll deal with _that _later. But, if I'm understanding this correctly...we have about a month until the next tourism money boost comes in."

"And judging by the state of the town, there's not gonna be many tourists…" The mayor said, glaring at Pony head.

Star put her chin in the table. "Any _other _ideas? Anyone at all?"

Silence.

"How about this." Eclipsa said. "We'll deal with the money matters later. We still have much to discuss after all."

"Yes, that would be nice." Queen Johansen said. "What's next on the agenda?"

"What's next?" Eclipsa said. "I guess…Star? You're up." Every single eye in the room was suddenly trained on Star, and she and Marco nervously stood up. They both remained silent for a few moments, unsure of how to begin.

"Well?" Rich Pigeon said. "So what's going on?"

"I...um, I'm sorry." Star said. "I don't really know where to start. There's _so _much to talk about. So, um, let's just start off with some questions, and me and Marco will answer them for you."

Instantly every hand in the room went up, except for Buff frogs, Eclipsa's, and Janna's, who herself was completely tuned out from the meeting.

"Oh jeez." Star said. "Okay, how about...you. Rich pigeon."

Rich cleared his throat and prepared to speak. "Who did this?" He asked. "Who was the mastermind behind this whole demon plot?"

"His name's Bren." Star answered. "Me and Marco met him yesterday during the attack, and he's also the same person that killed Mina. He was behind it. He told us himself, and we saw him tell that demon to destroy the town."

The royals murmured at this, all while whispering to each other.

"What did you meet him?" King Jaggy asked. "Did he tell you to go somewhere, or did you find him yourself?"

"Oh, we met him at...umm…"

While all the royals stared at her in confusion, Star contemplated whether it would be a good idea to tell them about the fire sanctuary.

'Crap.' She thought. 'Should I tell them? I mean, I definitely should, but...should I? I feel like if I do, it'll end badly. What would they do when they found out? They would tear that place apart as revenge for their kingdoms being totaled, that's what they'd do. I don't think Bren would like that. If anything, he'd just get even angrier at us. Then he'd go straight for the royals, instead of me. Can't let that happen. Even if they're useless in most situations, I won't let them do stupid decisions and then let Bren kill them. Lie. Tell them it was…the town park. Yes, of course.'

"At...the town park." Star said, finally finishing her sentence.

"Why'd it take you so long to finish?" Penelope asked.

"Uh, you see, Bren told us not to tell anybody about where we met, so I was contemplating whether to tell you. But I figured that it best if you all knew."

"A good choice." Queen Johansen said. "We must not listen to the orders of this madman. We must make our own decisions in this crisis, no matter who tells us otherwise."

"Yeah, sure." Star said. "All for that."

Star looked over at Marco, who was looking back at her confused. Star mouthed to him, "Go along with it. I'll explain later,"and then turned her attention back to the table.

"As for where how we found him," She continued. "He told us himself. Me and Marco got a note telling us to go to the…park, and when we got there we waited until he arrived."

"Interesting…" Globgor said. "So he wanted you to know about him."

"Actually no." Marco said. "At least, I don't think so. He made a comment on how he would have preferred to have us meet him later, but because Janna told us about his existence back when she was at the hospital, that apparently "forced his hand." He wanted us to meet him on his own terms."

"Meaning what?" Globgor asked.

"Meaning...I don't know." Marco said. "I guess he just likes to be in control of whatever situation he's in."

"I think everyone's like that." Star said. "But who else has a question? We got all day here."

"I got one." Ponyhead said. "Where is he now? Did he tell you anything like that?"

"We have no idea." Star said. "He could be anywhere. He could even be-"

"Right here." A loud voice said, the tone filled with nothing but pride.

Everyone slowly turned towards the doorway to see you-know-who standing there, smiling and looking extremely pleased with himself, as per usual.

Well, at least, Star and Marco knew who it was. For everybody else, they had no idea who they were looking at.

"Uh...who are you?" King Ponyhead said, asking the question that was on everybody's mind.

"Who am I?" Bren said. "I'm glad you asked.I'm the person who's behind all of this. I'm the guy that Butterfly was talking about just a minute ago. My name is Bren, and it was I who masterminded the demon attack that wreaked your kingdoms, so feel free to bow down."

The royals all looked at each other with "Wtf" expressions, each one of them making sure that everyone else was seeing the same thing they were, until they looked back to Bren.

And then burst out laughing.

Then entire room was instantly filled with snickers, chortles, and guffaws as they all lost it at Bren's claim, unable to believe that the person standing in front of them was the great threat Star talked about.

Except for Eclipsa and Janna. They looked at Star and Marco with expressions that read, "Is this him?", to which they responded with frantic nodding.

But as for the royals, they continued laughing until their stomachs hurt, at which the laughter slowly died down. They all wiped their eyes clear of tears and looked back at Bren with amused smiles.

"Oh, that is rich." Rich pigeon said. "I don't know what game you're trying to play boy, but if you really think that someone like _you _could impersonate this Bren Star was talking about, then you're sorely mistaken."

"And why is that?" Bren asked, now having gone from zero to pissed in one second.

"Well...just look at you!" Rich said, trying not to laugh again. "I mean, you're just some random teenager! You look even younger than those two!" He pointed at Star and Marco, who were still staring at Bren with identical fearful/why is he here glances.

"Also," Rich continued. "You're...okay, I don't want to be mean kid, but frankly, you look scrawny. Those arms look even thinner than my legs, and I'm a pigeon. And what's with your hair? Why is so white? Did you dye it that color?"

"It's my natural hair color." Bren said, his angry expression now changed to a bored one. "And if you value your life in any way, then I'd suggest you stop-"

"Stop talking?" Rich said, unable to do just that. "No. No, we're gonna keep going. I'm not done yet. I need a good laugh. Okay, ummm...ah yes! The clothes! What's with your clothes man? You look like you just got off from that Earth school! And how did you even get in here? Have the guards been sleeping on duty again? I...I just, I don't even know."

Rich turned to the one guard in the room, (security was lax) who himself was also trying not to laugh. "Hey, just like, restrain him, or something." Rich told him. "As numerous as this was, we should get back to the meeting.

The guard, still smiling widely, turned and walked towards Bren. "Make this easy on yourself." He said. "There doesn't have to be any kind of-"

Bren, deciding it was time to make a point, stepped to the side and clapped his hands twice. "Lucitor!" He said, much to everyone's sudden confusion.

Responding to this command, Tom stepped into the room, having been hidden from view the whole time. The royals smiled quickly turned to frowns, Star and Marco's fear tripled, and Janna looked on in pure shock.

Bren looked over at Tom then pointed at the guard.

"Kill him."

Without skipping a beat, Tom turned towards the now frightened guard. His hand lit up in flames and he tossed a huge fireball at him. The guard ducked, the fireball missing his head by inches. It smashed into a window behind him, melting it and creating a large hole.

"Out the window." Bren told Tom. "It'll make less of a mess. Well, in here."

Tom sprinted towards the guard and before he could even fully get back up, he punched him so hard he was launched off his feet and thrown out of the melted window. His screams could be heard fading as he plummeted several stories to the ground.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *splat*

Tom slowly walked back over to Bren and turned towards the room of shocked faces, who sure as _hell _weren't smiling anymore.

"Huh." Bren said, still looking at the window. "Never did know why people always built important meeting places up high. Always felt like kind of a design flaw, incase, you know, that happened."

"Uh...guards!" Globgor said. "Where are the rest of the guards? Call them in and-"

"Don't bother." Bren said. "I've already dealt with them. And you before you ask, yes, this is Thomas Lucitor, it is not an illusion or trick. No, he is not mind controlled. No, he is not doing this out of free will. Yes, I am forcing him to do this. No, I will not tell you how. So, I hope that clears it all up."

Nobody spoke. They were all still in disbelief at what had just occurred. Some of them were even pinching themselves, checking that they weren't in a dream. Or in this case, a nightmare.

"Nothing to say to that? Fine by me. Now give a moment…" Bren slowly looked around the room, looking at each and every single person there, simply studying them. "Hm. I think I recognize...all of you. Nice. No need for introductions then. And I'm sure you all know who I am. Right, _Rich?" _He once again looked at Rich, but this time glaring at him instead of simply looking.

Rich sank into his seat under Bren's gaze and nervously spoke up. "You...weren't kidding? You're really this Bren?"

"Oh yes. Now, I get it. I don't really look that intimidating. Or that fearsome, but hey, at least-"

"No!" River loudly said, interrupting him. "We're not going to listen to this!"

Bren looked at River as if he was crazy. "Excuse me?"

"We're not going to listen to this." River repeated, standing up. "If you really think that we're all just going to listen to the poison coming out of your mouth, you've got another thing com-"

"Sit down." Bren said, his voice completely devoid of emotion.

"What did you just say!?" River demanded, furious.

"I said sit down." Bren said, before turning to the rest of the room. "Not a single one of you is to stand up at any time. You're going to listen to me whether you like it or not, and if you refuse…" He looked over at Tom. "Well, I'm sure you can guess what'll happen."

"Yo-you dare?!" River said. "I will-"

"Dad, just please sit down." Star said, earning a surprised look from everyone.

River turned towards his daughter, and looked at her as if meeting her for the first time. "What?" He said. "But he-"

"I know." Star said. "Just...please sit down. Please don't make this any worse than this has to be."

River sputtered some words out, and looked from Bren to Star multiple times, but eventually consented and sat down, grumbling to himself.

'Thank Mewni." Star thought. 'That definitely wouldn't have ended well. For either side. Hopefully nobody tries to do that again. I don't think Bren's here to try and kill any of us. If he was he would have done that already.'

"Ah." Bren said. "Thank you Star, I knew you would-"

"Piss off." Star spat at him.

"...Hm. Yeah, okay. Don't know why I expected anything different. But back to the point. So, who-"

"Why are you here?" Moon asked. "What are you gaining out of coming here and talking to us?"

Bren sighed. "Okay. Another rule change. Stop interrupting me. But as for your questions Moon, it's simple. You see, I was listening in to your little meeting, and I decided-"

"Listening in?!" Queen Spiderbite said. "How?! We checked the room for any listening devices beforehand!"

"I-did you listen to a word that I just said?" Bren asked, getting close to losing his patience. "No. Interrupting. Me. From any of you. And if you think I'm going to tell you how I'm listening in...you'd never be more wrong."

"Is that so?" Ponyhead said, currently live-streaming the whole event on her phone. "You know, I think I know what's going on. Somebody in here is a spy for this guy! How else could he know? And if I'm going to guess…" She slowly looked around the room, before her eyes settled on Marco.

"Oh no no no." Marco said. "Don't tell me you really think that _I'm _Bren's spy, if there even is one! Why would you think that?! And don't just say because you don't like me!"

"Because reasons!" Ponyhead yelled. "Think about it. You're above suspicion. You're from Earth, and this guy looks like he is too, so you could have easily been in contact with each other."

"Actually," Bren said. "I'm not from-"

"I'm talking right now!" Ponyhead screeched at him, causing Bren to finally snap.

"Alright, that is it!" He yelled. "I guess you mongoloids are all too brain dead to understand me, or you just weren't just paying attention, but I said no interruptions! Especially by someone that's nothing but a talking head!"

"What did you say?!" Ponyhead said, grabbing her phone with her mouth, flying over to Bren, and shoving its camera in his face. "Why don't you say that the whole world! Because Ponyhead doesn't listen to anybody! Ponyhead isn't scared of people like you! Ponyhead-"

Bren grabbed the phone out of Ponyhead's mouth, looked her dead in the eyes, and then crushed it into dust. Ponyhead gawped at him, her face frozen in shock.

"Ponyhead is a prissy little princess who I will murder if she doesn't go back to her seat." He said. "Are you listening to me now, or is your ego and stupidity still clouding your sense of judgment?"

Ponyhead slowly looked down at the crushed pieces of plastic. "Oh no you didn't!" She yelled. "THAT PHONE WAS OVER FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS! HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WERE WATCHING THAT STREAM! HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO ME! I'M ROYALTY!"

"ASK ME IF I CARE, YOU LIVING WASTE OF SPACE!" Bren yelled back at her, now anger now clouding _his _judgment. "I'VE KILLED DOZENS OF PEOPLE TO GET WHERE I AM NOW, AND I WILL NOT BE DISRESPECTED BY SOMETHING LIKE YOU!"

"SOME_THING_?! THAT'S RACIST! THAT'S IT! I WILL KILL YOU! I SWEAR ON MY LIFE I WILL-"

"ENOUGH!" Moon yelled, loud enough that both Ponyhead and Bren stopped their argument. Moon pointed at Ponyhead. "You! Back to your seat! That is enough! You weren't supposed to be recording this event in the first place!"

"Hold on!" Ponyhead said. "He-"

"Don't. Care." Moon growled. "Sit back down. I don't care if he crushed your phone. I don't care if he was racist towards you. I don't care about any of it."

Ponyhead stayed where she was, until Star leaned towards her and whispered, "Ponyhead, in case you haven't noticed, we're not in a real good position to start pissing him off. Don't forget about Tom."

Ponyhead looked over at Tom, who was currently regretting not previously taking advantage of Bren's outburst and attacking him.

Seeing that Star was right, Ponyhead groaned and slowly floated back to her seat, "sitting" down in it and glaring at every person in the room, blaming everyone but herself.

"Okay." Bren said. "Now that that's over with, let's get back to the meeting, shall we? Now, what was your question again Moon?"

"Why. Are you. Here." Moon repeated, still far from being in a good mood.

"Ah. Well, simply put, I was listening in to your meeting, and when Star mentioned asking her questions about me, I thought, "Hey! Wouldn't it be fun if _I _myself showed up and answered their questions?" That's basically it. Well, that and the fact that I was bored to high hell."

"That's it?!" Moon said, skeptical of Bren's answer. "You came here because you were _bored_?!"

"Yeah." Bren said. "I haven't had much to do lately, what with all of my plans already having been...planned, and I wasn't really doing anything important, _and _that I thought it would be fun to come here and freak you out."

"Really?" Star asked. "Nothing else?"

"Nope." He said. "Nothing else. Also, thanks for lying earlier. I'm glad that you realized what would happen if you told them the truth: Nothing good."

"Hold on." King Johansen said, turning towards Star. "You lied?! About what?! What didn't you tell us the truth about?"

"Um, well, you see-"

"Don't even think about it." Bren said. "Keep it a secret. And don't try to tell them after I leave. Because I'll know."

Star frowned, but said no more, not sure whether to believe him or not, but also not willing to take the risk.

Bren then scanned the room until his eyes fell on Janna, upon which he started to walk over to her.

"If you want us to ask you questions, then I got one for you." King Jaggy said. "Why-"

"Give me a minute." Bren said. "Something I need to do first."

Bren continued walking around the room until he reached Janna, and stopped. The two stared at each other for a few moments, while the royals anxiously waited for his next move.

"Well well well." Bren said to Janna. "Look at you. You know, you've been quite a pain. Because you had to go and tell the pissants back at the hospital about me, I had to change my plan. That's caused quite a headache…"

"What's your point?" Janna asked, unimpressed. "Are you gonna kill me? Right here? Right now? In front of everyone?"

"As tempting as that is…" Bren said. "No. I think not. The time for that has passed. I should have just told Mina to kill you way back when, and saved myself the trouble. Of course, I could have just snuck into the hospital and smothered you with a pillow, but that's no fun. Plus, there's no real...class, to that."

Marco suddenly got a sense of deja vu. He could swear that he heard Bren say something similar back at the fire sanctuary, about class and killing and something else.

'Is he just repeating himself?' Marco thought. 'Does he even realize it, or does he just not care? Then again, nothing about that meeting back at the sanctuary made sense. I'm still wondering what the hell that mental breakdown he had was all about. I think he said something along the lines of, "you know what's right." There's a lot of possibilities for an explanation to that one.'

"So," Bren continued. "I'm not going to kill you Janna. Instead, I'm-"

"Was it you?" Janna blurted out.

Despite being interrupted once again, Bren face turns to one of confusion rather than anger. "Was it me what?"

"Was it you who helped me back when the hospital had a blackout? Because I remember now. Your voice sounds so damn similar to the person that gave me those crutches. Also your height, and even your posture, looks exactly like the shadow that was there. So, was it you?"

Bren smiled and backed away from here, walking over to the window that Tom had melted earlier.

"Yes." He said. "Yes, that was me. I went there. I caused the blackout. I gave you those crutches."

"Are you serious?" Eclipsa asked, finally speaking up after having remained silent for a while. "It was _you _who helped Ms. Ordania? But why? She was the only reason we managed to vanquish that demon of yours!"

"Oh I know." Bren said. "That's why I released her. I knew you wouldn't be able to stop it without her knowledge of demon ritual magic. If she hadn't been there, that thing could still be out there, rampaging around! And while that would be extremely entertaining to watch, I never planned for that demon to last forever, so I helped Janna knowing that she would find you, and then send it back to the Underworld."

"So...what would you have done if Janna's ritual didn't work?" Marco asked.

"Oh, well then I would have sent I back myself. Also, you don't have to worry about me releasing another demon for a while. You got plenty of time before I do that again, if I even do it at all."

"Yeah, we'll see about that." Star said. "Don't think we trust you even the smallest bit."

"That's great." Bren said. "But you should trust me on that. I can't have the town too destroyed. If you all go bankrupt, then what will there be left for me to take out? No, an event like that won't happen again for a while. Take some time. Rebuilt the town. Restore it."

Penelope, who was sitting right next to the melted window and therefore right next to where Bren was standing, narrowed her eyes and spoke up. "It's gonna take a lot longer for the Spiderbite forest to regrow." She said. "Do you know how much-"

Without warning, Bren slammed his hand down on Penelope's right shoulder, causing her body to tense up and her heart to start beating twice as fast.

"What was that?" Bren asked, before leaning in towards her ear, now whispering so softly that only Penelope could hear it. "Don't try and say anything. Remember what I said. To both you and Buff frog. Do what I say, and you might survive this whole...revenge plot."

Before Penelope could react to this threat, King Spiderbite stood up and slammed his fists on the table.

"Get your filthy hands off my daughter!" He yelled.

Bren straightened himself up, but didn't let go of Penelope's shoulder. In fact, if anything, his grip became tighter.

"What were the rules?" He said rhetorically. "What were the rules that I said you had to follow? Don't interrupt me, and don't stand up. And guess what, you just basically did both."

"I don't care." King Spiderbite said. "You want to come here and talk to us? Fine. But I will not allow you to harm my daughter in anyway."

Bren tilted his head at the king, his grip on Penelope's shoulder getting even tighter. "Is that so?" He asked. "Please, tell me, how exactly do you plan on stopping me from doing that? I am in control here, and I'll touch whoever I want!"

"..."

"...Okay, you're right, that sounded really wrong. But you get my point. Don't try and be a hero. Now, sit back down, and we can continue. Or, I'll have to make an example."

"I'll sit back down once you get your evil palms off of her!" King Spiderbite said, pointing at Penelope.

"Hmmm...evil is such a relative term. I wouldn't describe myself as-"

Exactly like Ponyhead did earlier, King Spiderbite lost his temper and yelled at Bren. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DAUGHTER!"

"DON'T INTERRUPT ME! GOD, HOW MANY TIMES IS THIS GOING TO HAPPEN!?"

"AS MANY TIMES AS IT NEEDS TO, NOW-"

They were both cut off by a loud squeak of pain, and Bren looked down to see that he was now squeezing Penelope's shoulder so hard that he was seconds away from snapping her shoulder bone. He paused, struggled to find something to say, before slightly loosening his grip. But he still didn't let go, and he turned back to the king.

"Let. Go. Of her." King Spiderbite repeated, shaking with rage.

"So you're not going to sit down?" Bren asked, ignoring him.

"No! Now-"

"Okay, okay." Bren said, letting go of Penelope's shoulder.

Both King Spiderbite and Penelope relaxed for a moment, before with almost lighting speed, Bren snatched up Penelope's hair and yanked her out of her chair. Before she or anybody else could react, he dragged her over to the melted window and shoved her through the opening, with the only thing keeping her from falling several stories being Bren's grip on her hair.

Instantly half the room let out a small scream of horror, while Queen Spiderbite fainted and fell to the floor. Bren slowly took in the sudden chaos, while Penelope screamed in pain as her scalp slowly started to tear under the pressure.

"No!" King Spiderbite said. "Don't!"

"What's that?" Bren asked. "Still want me to let go of her? Like this?"

"No! I-"

Before King Spiderbite could finish his sentence, Bren relaxed his grasp on Penelope's hair, resulting in her slipping an inch downward and letting out another scream of pain/terror.

"Oh!" He said. "She's slipping! Better be careful! I loosen my grip one more time, she's gone! Decide your next move very carefully Spiderbite, or her death is on _you_, not me."

King Spiderbite started hyperventilating, but tried to compose himself as best he could. "Just...what do you want me to do?" He asked.

"Ah. That's more like it. Now, you're going to sit down, and you won't interrupt me again. In fact, how about you just stay silent for the rest of the meeting, or next time it'll be you that flies out the window. Got it?"

"Yes. Of course." He said, before quickly sitting back down, sweating like a pig.

"Good." Bren said. "Glad to see that you have _some _sense."

"Bren." Star said, tired of simply watching all this happen. "King Spiderbite did what you asked. Now let go of Penelope."

"What, like right no-"

"You know what I mean! Do it!"

Bren sighed and glared at Star. "Don't expect me to take orders from you, but alright." He yanked Penelope up and threw her on the floor, where she stayed there for a few moments, sobbing and frantically rubbing her head.

"When you're done crying, get back in your seat." Bren said. "Sorry I had to do that, but that giant hole in the window was just too convenient for me to ignore. Now then…"

Stepping over Penelope, Bren walked to the other side of the table and went straight for for Shawn.

"Okay." He said, looming over Shawn like an overprotective parent. "If any of you try to pull the same stunt that king Spiderbitch just did, then…"

He quickly grabbed Shawn's typewriter and smashed it against the wall, obliterating it in an instant. Shawn's reaction to this was to simply lean as far away from Bren as he could, as if he was diseased.

"Then next time, it'll be your head instead of that typewriter."

River stared Bren down and was about to open his mouth, but Star noticed this and shot him a look, desperately shaking her head.

Ignoring this, Bren walked back to the front of the room and put his hands on the table.

"Alright. Now, who has a question. That's why I came here after all. Not to yell at horse heads…" He looked at Ponyhead, who was still glaring back at him. "...Or to dangle princesses out of windows…" He looked over at Penelope, who was sitting back down but looked slightly traumatized by the whole event. "...But I did come here to have some fun and answer your questions. I'm trying to be nice here. I'm trying to talk. So why don't we do just that! Let's talk. Ask me something! Ask me anything! I've got time to kill! Stop making this meeting into a horror show, and instead let's replace it with something wonderful!"

Everybody looked at him like he just said he had escaped from an insane asylum. Even someone like Mina would have been confused by that speech.

"Are you serious?" Marco asked. "Back at the sanc-I mean, um, park, you told us that you wanted to kill us. The only reason we let you talk back then was because we wanted to find out as much about you as possible. That's why we left after you had that nervous breakdown, or whatever the hell that was. There was no real purpose in staying."

"Wait." Janna whispered, leaning in towards Star. "Nervous breakdown?"

"Yeah." Star whispered back. "Back at the park, after he had said some weird stuff, I told him that it sounded like that even he didn't know why he was doing all this. His response to that was to turn away from us and repeat, "you know what's right," multiple times to himself. Then after half a minute of that, he turned back to us, apologized, and acted like nothing happened."

"Hmm…" Janna hummed, as if she had heard of this before. "Got anything mor-"

"No purpose in staying?" Bren said to Marco, halting Janna's question. "I beg to differ. I could have told you a lot more, but you simply didn't want to stay."

"Do you blame us?" Marco asked. "Because in that moment, you looked like you were crazy. I'm still on the fence about whether you actually are insane, or if you're just putting on a show."

"It's...not a show." Bren responded. "I would rather you hadn't seen that. But you did, and there's nothing I could do to change that. Hmm, wait no, I could just kill you, but then Butterfly would get all pissy and attack me. Yeah, nothing I can do to change that."

"I'd be a lot more than pissy." Star said, furious just at the mention of anybody hurting Marco. "But are you _really _here to just answer some questions?"

Bren groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Oh my god, YES! How many times do I have to repeat that? Unless you want me to leave, upon which I'll just go, I have time for some questions. Think about it like a guest speaking coming to your school, and answering your questions once they're done, all because they have to do something to fill up time."

"I actually had a question." King jaggy said. "But then you interrupted me to talk to...Jayla, or something."

Janna was about to correct the Jaggy royal on this, but Bren spoke up less than a second later, not wanting anybody to speak before him.

"Sorry, not sorry." He said. "But please, continue. What is your question?"

King Jaggy cleared his throat and prepared to speak. "Why are you doing this?"

"Like, everything?"

"Yes. Why did you have that demon come and destroy everything? Why did you murder Mina Loveberry? Do you hate all of us or are you just doing it for fun?"

Bren rubbed his chin, trying to fake some appearance of being in deep thought. "Very good questions." He said. "For the first one, I just had to find a way to get out. It was simply a distraction. Nothing more, nothing less. I knew you would get rid of it in the end, and if you didn't, well, like I said earlier, I would've sent it back myself.

"So you're telling me that your demon rampaging around and town and causing tens of millions of dollars of damage was nothing more than a distraction?!" The mayor asked, having hoped for a more...satisfying answer.

"Yeah. Deal with it. Now, what was next...ah yes, why did I kill Mina. Simply put, she was useless to me. She was a mistake that I couldn't have running around town causing trouble. I didn't want her to steal all the fun."

"You murdered her for that?!" Moon asked. "Because-because you didn't want to share in the destruction of the town?!"

"No. That's not what I meant." Bren said. "I killed her because if I allowed her to keep doing what she was doing, it could have caused trouble for me down the line. Also, Mina didn't want to destroy the town. Just monsters."

"While we're on that topic…" Eclipsa started. "Is any of this out of hatred for monsters?"

"Not one bit of it. Your guys problems are your own. I don't care about whether you're a monster, Mewman, or human, and not just because I'm not any of those, but because I don't really see you all as different, I just see you all as the same person, just joined into one little cluster of people that I hate."

'Huh.' Eclipsa thought, having difficulty processing all of this. 'Either that's really really good, or really really bad. If he doesn't care who we are, then I guess he won't try and cause strain between the three species like Mina did. The last thing we need is more of that. Well, besides more of...whatever Bren is."

"But," Bren continued, turning back towards the Jaggy King. "As for your third question, I'm not doing this for fun. Is it fun? Most certainly. But still, that's not what I'm doing it for. I believed you mentioned if I was doing was because I hated all of you. I don't, unless you give me a reason too. I really only hate one of you."

"I'm going to go out on a limb here…" The Johansen princess said. "Was it Star?"

"Ding ding." Bren said. "We got a winner. Do you want the mystery door, or would you prefer the cash prize?"

"Star, what did you do this time?" Moon asked her, ignoring Bren's odd game show-esque speech.

"I don't...really know." Star answered. "He didn't really tell me why. He said I had to figure that out for myself."

"Indeed you do. Bren said. And I for one can't wait to see how. Maybe ask Janna? Or somebody entirely? Wait. I know, why don't you ask Tom! I'm sure he can...oh wait, sorry about that. He can't, can he?" He said, flashing Star a shit-eating grin.

"What...is wrong with you?!" She demanded. "Are you trying to taunt me, or are you just totally insane?"

"Oh no." Bren said, still grinning at her. "I'm just doing whatever comes to mind at the moment. If it just pops into my head, then I who am I to say no?"

"That's not it." Janna said. "There's something else."

"Oh?" Bren said. "Well then, just like Marco attempted to do back at the...park, why don't you explain everything. About what's wrong with me and why I'm doing this!

"Hey. You said that I was half right." Marco interjected. "So don't-"

"Shh. You. Shh." Bren said, pointing at Marco. "I want to hear what she has to say. Alright Janna, go on. Tell us all what's wrong with me."

"You're different." Janna said. "And I'm not stating the obvious, but I doubt there's a single person here who's anything like."

"There's no one else like me." Bren said.

"Yeah. And thank god for that." Janna responded. "Because you know what? Maybe you aren't insane. But I definitely see a few things wrong with you. This whole coming to the meeting thing you're doing? It's not because you're bored. It's a show of force. Bringing Tom along and having him kill that guard showed that. You just want us to be scared of you. Also, another thing. I ah no doubt that you have some kind of mental disorder. I don't which one, but the way you talk, with sometimes just switching moods and just plain being a creep, makes me think that you're unstable. Finally, and this is where it was really interesting to me, is that fact that you helped me escape the hospital and that you told Star and Marco to try and stop you. I wonder if you actually want to succeed, or if you secretly want to lose. I've heard of that kind of stuff before, and I think you're starting to fit the bill."

Bren took a moment to think about all this, staring at Janna with a scowl.

"Hmm...okay." He said. "Is this a show of force? Maybe! I don't know! But in the moment where I thought of it, it wasn't. But I suppose I became one soon after I arrived.

As for your other theory, no. I don't want to lose. I want to win more than anything. But the way I want to is something that you wouldn't understand. Nobody could understand. Not even the best psychologist in the world. So you can stop with your crappy theories."

"Question." Star said.

"Answer." Bren said.

"Do you know why you're doing this?" She asked. "You sound like you don't even know."

Bren paused upon hearing this, and did nothing but gaze at her for a few seconds, like he was in a fog.

'I wonder what'll happen.' Star thought to herself. 'Back at the sanctuary, when I mentioned something along those lines, he had that breakdown a second later. Hopefully it'll happen again. Maybe it'll give Tom a chance to act once if he goes crazy.'

Bren turned away from Star, and looked like he actually _was _about to go crazy, as his breathing started getting panicky and his face turned pale white. But right before it looked like he would repeating things to himself again, he slapped himself in the face and said, "NO!", before turning back to Star.

"You…" He started. "You almost got me there. Thought that would work again? I should have known you would try to use it against me. I...can't believe you would try that. What was your plan? Have Tom attack me while I was busy losing it?"

"Umm…"

"Yeah. I thought so. Doesn't matter, don't care. I can't blame you for trying. But...I think I'm done here."

"What do you mean done?" Eclipsa asked.

"This isn't working out how it thought it would." Bren said. "I thought I could come here and have some fun, maybe screw with all of you, have you asked some questions, but was a mistake. All I've been this whole time is either angry at you not listening to me, or just getting tired of yelling at you. So, I'm going."

"Thank god/Mewni." Everybody whispered, except for king Jaggy, who blurted out, "Wait! You said you would answer our questions! We still have a lot to ask yo-"

"Star, Marco, and the person I should have told Mina to kill can answer those questions! Not my problem anymore! I'm going to go. Have fun dealing with all the money problems, and the town being in shambles, and everything else. Good luck and goodbye. But not really. Screw all of you."

With that, Bren turned around and exited the room, signaling for Tom to follow him. Tom took one look around the room, then followed Bren out. Then as quickly as they had arrived, they were gone.

Everybody watched them leave, happy that it was finally over.

"It's not over." Star said. "We still have to discu-"

"I think I'm leaving too." Penelope said.

"What! No!" Star said. "You-"

"She's right." King Johansen said. "After what just happened, I think I'm done with talking. Schedule another meeting for later, but we all want to go home right. Besides, the citizens will be looking to us for how to help them after the demon incident, so we need to go do that."

"You can't just all leave!" Star said. "What if Bren sends another demon to attack us tomorrow, and we don't know what to do?"

"He's not going to do that." Moon said. "I could hear it in his tone. He's almost certainly going to take a day off of...whatever it is he does after this whole mess. As am I. We all are."

"You...I…" Star bit her bottom lip and started shaking uncontrollably, trying to find the right words to yell at them. Just as she was about to open her mouth, Marco leaned towards her.

"Don't." He said. "You know there's no stopping them when they want to leave one of those meetings. And if we're being honest here...I want to take a break as well."

"Ughhhhhhhh-fine!" Star said. "Finefinefinefinefine! All of you leave! We'll have another meeting two days from now, and _then _we'll talk about everything! About everything Bren said to us back at the park, about everything Janna knows about demons, and how to take care of everything else! In the meantime, the money problem will be solved with Brudo's money bags. Tell the citizens that that's how their gonna pay for their money, until _we, _ad make sure with mention is so they don't think they'll have to pay it all off by themselves, can find a better solution! Eclipsa, make sure to get that information to everybody. We'll also make sure to deal with the tourist money and see if we can get the money back from those TV providers. Ponyhead, don't say anything, you can complain about it at the next meeting. Now...and now...you can leave."

"Wait." Marco said, before anybody could get up. "Didn't Bren kill all the guards? He did say he "took care of them." Shouldn't we do something about that?"

"Oh Mewni, I can't believe I forgot about all of that." Star said. "Just...take the emergency exit, and have somebody clean those guys up. Don't forget the guy Bren had Tom kick out the window. _Now _you can leave. For real this time."

Slowly, everybody got up from their chairs and left the room, looking as if they had just woken up from a twelve hour nap. Once it was Eclipsa, Globgor, Star, Marco, and Janna, Star got up and walked over to the giant hole in the window.

"Are you okay?" Marco asked her. "Bren did just murder a bunch of guards, and you don't seem to care."

"Do you know why I don't care Marco?" Star asked. "I don't care because I...I just don't. For some reason, I'm not affected at all. And as horrible as that sounds, I don't think anybody else really cared a few minutes after it happened."

"I did notice that." Marco said. "Why didn't we?"

"Maybe something in the back of our minds was making us not. Maybe we've all turned into monsters. Mentally, or course. Or maybe we just know that those deaths are likely just the beginning, and we can't afford to care about the ones early on."

"That's...morbid." Marco said. "But we'll make it through this."

"Hopefully." Star said. "We'll have the next meeting two days from now."

"Why two? Why not tomorrow?" Marco asked.

"Because I remembered what you said." Star said. "Abi how you wanted a break. So let's take one! You remember how I mentioned we were gonna get a second beach day? Let's do that tomorrow. Just me and you, alone on that beach again, only this time there'll be no annoying photo to make us worry about stuff."

"We have a whole new source of worries though…"

"Don't ruin it!" Star said. "Don't make me change my mind!"

"Okay, I won't." Marco said. "Let's do that tomorrow. Janna, how about-"

"I don't know what you're going to say, but I'm staying here and going back to the hospital. The leave of absence the council gave me was only good for this meeting."

"Yeah, well make sure to tell them that it's good for the meeting two days from now."

"Okay. See you around." Janna said, before hopping away on her crutches.

Star watched her go and then look at Eclipsa. "We should probably get that message out to the town." She said. "Townspeople probably don't want to wait too much longer for an answer, even if it isn't a good one."

"Right." Eclipsa said. "We'll go do that, and send somebody to...clean up the guards and inform their families."

"Go do that." Star said. "Me and Marco are leaving now too."

"Of course." Eclipsa said. "You two go have that short vacation. Me and Globgor would take one, but...we have a lot of work to do. But don't worry. Go have fun and be with each other. You've earned it after everything that's happened lately."

"Thanks Eclipsa. See you around."

"See you Star." Eclipsa said. "See you around…"

Star and Marco left, Eclipsa and Globgor stayed behind, trying to think of an appropriate way to address the town, and the royals all went home, trying to relax. Nothing was going well, and everything was going wrong. And as much as all of hoped for the opposite…they all knew it wouldn't happen.

Things just seemed to be going that way.

**End chapter 12**

**A/N: So what was the real reason Star and everybody else didn't act about those deaths? There is a real explanation, and that will come up again in a future chapter.**

**Another chapter that I feel is a mess. Hopefully the next one will be...less of one. Beach day part 2, although I doubt anything will go that well. Seems to be a theme.**

**Until next time.**


	13. Chapter 13: The Elephant in the room

**Aflame**

**Chapter 13**

**The Elephant in the room**

Echo creek was a long time in rebuilding.

The damage done by the demon was visible everywhere. But not just physical damage. The mental state of the town was almost badly harmed, almost to the extreme. It had been almost three days since the attack, and Eclipsa still hadn't given a statement. She _was _about to, on a stage in front of a crowd that numbered over a thousand, but until then, people were scared, angry, and looking for answers. The fact that there hadn't been a riot as of yet was a miracle, and if the townspeople didn't get what they wanted to hear soon, then everything that had been bubbling under the surface for the past 3 days would erupt. Violently, with riots, looting, and of course, death. Lots of it.

But that wasn't to say that a storm cloud of despair and hatred had completely consumed the town. There were still those just looking to help. Some were cleaning up the town, one brick at a time, others were donating as much money as they could spare to those who had their shops and lives turned into rubble. But it wasn't enough. It would never be enough. There was still so much to fix, so much to repair, just...so much, and the ones that didn't help greatly outweighed the ones that did.

And Eclipsa and the mayor were at the center of it all.

On a large stage in the middle of the town park, a gigantic crowd had gathered, eager for an answer. The general mood was worrisome, as well as the ever-present anger. It didn't look like things would go well. Especially because Eclipsa and the mayor had to say that they had to give up their tax money that Brudo gave them.

Backstage, both of them prepared to read the speech together, in some kind of way of showing that the town must stand together, just like they were about to. Corny? Yes. But still necessary. People were starting to forget that in order to get through things like this, that they had to rely on others, as nobody could fix it all by themselves.

"Okay okay okay." Eclipsa said, panicking inside. "So we talk about how we know why we know the town was attacked, we tell everybody about Bren and how they should watch out for him and Tom, and then we explain the...the money situation. Anything we missed?"

Star and Marco, who were standing nearby helping them prepare as well as planning out their beach day once they finished helping with the speech, shook their heads in symmetry.

"Don't think so." Marco said. "That's all that's needed to be said, and all they need to know at the moment. We should also tell that we, and therefore them, shouldn't expect another demon attack anytime soon."

"What, because Bren said so?" Star asked. "Don't tell me you believe him."

"I don't. But unfortunately, that's all we've got right now, so we have to use it." He sighed a sigh of defeat. "Even though yeah, he's totally lying."

"I think that's the least of our concerns." The mayor said, walking over to them. "I'm more worried about how they're going to respond to our little "solution." Just like your friend Janna said, there could be a riot. I know the people of Echo creek, I've been mayor for decades, and they will _not _be happy."

"We can't do anything about that." Star said. "We don't have any more ideas on how to handle the money. If somebody tries and starts a charity, it would take too long. It's already going to take months to fully repair the damage, even if we had all the money! They're not going to be happy, no matter what we tell them. There's nothing we can do about that. We can only hope that they won't tear us into bloody pieces once they hear it."

"That's comforting." Marco said. "But unfortunately, you're right. They want an answer now, and we can't delay it any further."

"True." The mayor said, sneaking a look at the crowd. "They're growing impatient. No more time to spare."

Eclipsa took a deep breath and prepared herself one last time, then she and the mayor walked on stage together. There was no applause of any kind from the crowd, and both of them started sweating at the sight of thousands of angry eyes look at them.

Eclipsa walked over to the microphone stand and spoke into it. "Hello." She said, but was instead met with an insanely loud screeching noise. The entire crowd cringed and covered their ears at the noise, and Eclipsa banged the microphone a few times to get it working.

"Hello." She repeated. "Thank you all for coming. As you know, the town was attacked just a few days ago, and the mayor, myself, and the rest of the Mewnian high council have prepared a statement for you all. It will explain why the events of the past few days happened in the first place, and what we will do moving forward."

Before continuing, Eclipsa scanned the crowd. Not just to see if Bren was somewhere among the others, but to see how the townspeople were so far reacting. And the answer was...not good. Everybody there had an expression that make Eclipsa just want to get to the point, but she knew that she had to deliver the full speech, lest it appear that even _she _was angry and scared, just like the rest of them.

"Three days ago…" She continued. "Earthni was attacked by a large demon that had been sent from the Underworld. With info given to us by Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz, we now know who sent it here and why. The person who sent the demon here is named Bren. We believe he has been planning this attack for some time."

The crowds response to this was similar to the Mewnian high councils. Murmured whispers, glances around, and a general wave of confusion.

"So," Eclipsa said. "We also know why he sent the demon here. He simply did it as a distraction so he could prevent himself from being captured. We now know that the demon was never intended to fully destroy the town, and is possibly just the beginning."

More murmurs, more whispers, but this time, they were louder and more panicky, with people wondering out loud when the next attack would be.

Seeing that she was losing the crowd, Eclipsa raised her voice and spoke again. "But...this is just a theory. Bren himself said that if a demon attack does occur again, it won't be for some time. And while we have no reason to believe anything he says, we can only hope that this is the truth."

"Wait, you met with this guy?!" A random voice from the crowd yelled. "Did he personally come and speak to the council?"

"Yes." Eclipsa said. 'Yes he did. During our last meeting, he broke in, killed all our guards, and then came and spoke to us. Most of it was nonsense and threats, so he didn't really give us any useful information. We will learn that from Star and Marco at the meeting that's being held tomorrow, as they are the first ones that encountered and spoke to him...at least that we know of."

"Why didn't you just arrest him right there and then?" The same voice called out.

"Yeah!" Said another. "Even if he did kill the guards, there should have been enough of you there that you could have taken him down! Why didn't you do anything?!"

"Because…" Eclipsa said. "Because…*sigh*. Because he wasn't alone. We don't know how, but through an unknown means Bren has taken control of Thomas Lucitor, the current prince of the Underworld, and is using him as his slave. We couldn't do anything because Thomas would have killed us if we did."

The crowd immediately yelled in an uproar. "What?!" Someone yelled. "Is that demon boy in league with this Bren?!"

"I knew it! I knew demons couldn't be trusted!" Someone else yelled, and the rest of the mob let out some shouts of their own.

"He's right! And it was a demon that attacked the town! We should-"

"QUIET!" Eclipsa yelled, losing her temper, which had been growing the second she stepped on stage. The last thing she needed from these people was _more _animosity towards each other. "Just...that's not it at all. Thomas was being mind-controlled. We saw it ourselves."

"Are-are you sure?"

"Yes." Eclipsa said. "We don't know how to free him, but it was _not _his fault. The Lucitors have nothing to do with this, and the demon that attacked the town was also a mindless slave. They are not responsible for this."

A collective, "ohhh" came over the crowd, and Eclipsa breathed a sigh of relief. The whole mind control thing was of course a complete lie, but if she revealed that Tom was doing it while still being in his right mind, then there would be a riot, with the anger directed towards the Underworld. How Bren actually made Tom do those things was still up for debate, although Star and Marco told Eclipsa after the meeting that Bren had some kind of black device that Tom was terrified of, so that seemed to be the key.

But that didn't matter right now. She still had to finish the speech for the townspeople, and then the mayor had to explain the money situation to them. All of which would lead to an unavoidable dilemma.

"Continuing with the statement," She said. "We are making plans on what to do in case a similar event happens again. We will make sure that we can take care of the problem much more efficiently, and quicker, than last time."

"What are you gonna do?" Somebody yelled out. "Are we gonna have any part in it?"

"No." Eclipsa said. "No, none of you will have any part in it. If it happens again, then you will all be quickly taken to a secure location where you will be safe. As for what the plan is…" Eclipsa paused and cursed under her breath. She hadn't thought this through. Truth be told, they didn't _have _a plan yet. They didn't have time to put one into the speech or plan out what to say. But nobody would be happy to hear that. She had to come up with a lie. Fast.

"I...cannot tell you." She said, before continuing to speak fast enough that nobody could interrupt. "But this is for a good reason! We cannot handle the possibility that Bren could have other people working for him, and if we let the news get out, then they might learn about it and find a way to stop us. I hope you all understand this."

For the first time, the crowd didn't speak, but simply silently agreed, understanding for once that it was necessary. But the moment didn't last. As if the crowd was a collective hive mind that loved to bombard Eclipsa with questions, another person yelled out.

"Other people?" They said. "Who else is with him?"

"We don't know." Eclipsa said. "So please, all of you, listen closely, and make sure to watch out. While we're not telling you to actively spy on people, we are telling you to report anything suspicious to the police, who in turn will report it to us."

"Wait...does this mean we can't trust anybody?" Another asked. "Could anybody be an enemy?"

'Nonono…' Eclipsa thought, now regretting her previous words. She couldn't have the townsfolk start looking at everybody with distrust, unsure about who was an enemy and who wasn't. The town would descend into chaos.

And in a situation like that, one must keep order, yes?

Yes. That was what they needed to do. "Not everybody." Eclipsa said. "Do not look at your fellow citizens with distrust. Don't have the mindset that there could be an enemy everywhere you look. In order for us, as a community, to get through this crisis, we must stand together. Don't fall down and accuse everybody you meet. Rise up and gain their trust, become friends, make sure that every single person you know is somebody you can trust."

Eclipsa took a deep breath, personally thinking that that speech had been a very excellent one. Backstage, Star and Marco smiled and nodded at each other, positive that this would sway the crowd from any thoughts of suspicion.

But despite their optimistic hopes, the crowd did not share this sentiment as strongly as they anticipated.

"You're telling us to make friends?" Somebody asked. "What is this, some kind of community get together? Aren't we under attack?!"

Star and Marco's smiles quickly turned to frowns, and Eclipsa's face turned to one of mild disappointment. 'Oh for the love of Mewni, can't these people just get along?!' She thought. 'Or...I should have just worded it better. But no taking that back now. Either way, these people are going to get angry, like Star said. Give them their answers and hope for the best. That's all any of us can hope for now.'

"Yes, we are under attack, if that's what you'd like to call it." Eclipsa said, trying her hardest to keep her cool. "But that's exactly _why _we should stand together, like I said. We can't let ourselves devolve into animals and look at everybody like they're about to stab you in the back. We can't let that happen." Eclipsa realized that she was starting to repeat herself here, but she didn't care. She had to get the message through the townspeople's heads, as she was sure that at least a few of them still weren't hearing a word she was saying. "No matter what, stand together, and the town and all of you can and will make it through this."

"So, do you all understand?" She asked. "Please report anything suspicious, and once our statement is done, we will distribute pictures of what Bren looks like around town, so everybody can report it to us if you see him."

"Should we do anything else if we see him?" Somebody asked. "Maybe try and...restrain him, or something?"

"No. Definitely not." Eclipsa said, her voice coming out as a demand. "If you see him, report it to us, but that's it. Do _not _approach him. We're not sure what's he fully capable of, and he has Thomas protecting him, so don't go anywhere near him. But do tell us exactly where and when you saw him, so the police and the council can track him down. _Now _do you fully understand?" She repeated.

This question as answered by several shrugs, mumbles, and whispering that sounded like they understood. Mostly, at least.

"Good." Eclipsa said. "Now, on to the topic of the damage the town received and how we plan to fix it. The mayor will explain this part to you."

Eclipsa stepped to the side to let the mayor took the stage, who walked forward, visibly shaking and looking more nervous than anybody had ever seen him.

"Hello everyone." He said. "As you know, as the mayor of Earthni, and one half of the duumvirate, it is my job to make sure that you all get what you need. Now, I promise that you will get exactly that. Soon, we will try and repair all the damages done to your homes and shops, as well as the roads. We simply ask that for the time being, all citizens stay away from any destroyed or damaged buildings, as we don't want to risk the possibility that they could collapse with you inside of it."

"Then how are we supposed to live our lives?" Somebody asked. "If we can't buy anything because we're banned from going near any of the stores, what are we supposed to do?"

"I'm getting to that." The mayor said. "And may I please ask that nobody interrupts again for the time being, as it would be best to get through as fast as possible, so we can figure out these problems as quickly as we can. Now, onto the topic of how we will pay for all of this."

Star, Marco, and Eclipsa took a deep breath and prepared themselves for the crowd's reaction. It was going to be bad, they already knew that. They could only pray that they wouldn't storm the stage and tear them apart in rage, although that was likely an exaggeration.

Probably…

"Here is what will happen." The mayor continued. "Yesterday, you all received large bags of money from Lord Brudo to pay your taxes. I'm sorry to say that at the moment, that money is all we have. I'm going to have to ask you to donate those bags to the town so we can make repairs to the most vital buildings."

The crowd was silent, taking this in.

Then it exploded in an enormous cacophony of noise, with every single person there not believing what they just heard. Just like Janna had said, it looked like there was about to be a full blown riot.

"I know! I know!" The mayor shouted, trying to out yell the crowd. "I'm sorry, but this is the solution we have at the moment. We don't have any money. The royal family's were all scammed out of their wealth, and the tourism money the town earned was used for...other purposes, a few days before."

The yelling seemed to die down a bit, but still remained loud enough that it could be heard all the way down the street.

"Oh god…" Marco said. "This is getting out of hand. They are furious. We should probably leave before things get any worse." Marco turned to leave, but Star grabbed his hoodie and yanked him back. "Oh no you don't." She said. "Come on. I'm gonna sort this out, and you're not going anywhere." Star then walked on stage, grabbing the microphone out of the mayors hands. She adjusted it to create another insane shriek, and the crowd all stopped yelling and covered their ears, before setting their eyes on Star.

Now having their attention, Star stepped forward and spoke, making sure that everybody could hear her. "People of Earthni!" She yelled. "I get it! I do! One day you're given a gigantic sum of money to pay off those taxes you so greatly abhor! Then you learn that the town was trashed by a monster, your shops are in ruins, and then after waiting for _three days_, you finally get an answer and learn that the tax money will be used to pay for it. I understand your anger. I understand why you're so mad. But...this isn't the way. Like Eclipsa tried to convince you of just a few minutes ago, we have to trust one another and get rid of our anger. We can't let Bren get to us. All of us fighting and rioting is exactly what he wants!"

"But that money was for our taxes, like _you_ said." Someone protested. "Now you're literally saying that we have to give it up?"

"Some people need it more right now!" Star yelled. "Some people have had their shops and lives decimated, and they need that money more than anything. Look around! It was all your fellow citizens. It could be the person right next to you! And I'm willing to bet that not a single person whose buildings were attacked have said anything yet. Because they know what's more important. Not taxes, but getting their lives together. So you all should help them do that."

The people in the crowd all looked at each other, and some of them started to nod to this, Star's message getting through to them. But for Star, it still wasn't enough. She had to drive the point home.

"Here's what's going to happen." She said. "Everybody who did have something of theirs damaged, go to the right. Everybody who didn't, go to the left. Then I'll show you why you need to help each other."

The entire assembly of people hesitated for a moment, wondering what Star was doing, but soon they started going to their respective sides. A minute later, there were now two crowds, with a thin empty barrier between them. The one on the right looked noticeably less aggravated with the tax news then the one on the right, because just like Star had said, they understood what was more important.

"Good." Star said. "Now…look at each other. What do you see? Do you see someone different? Do you see someone that's not the same as you? Humans, do you see a bunch of new people from some foreign land, suddenly arriving and driving up your taxes? Mewmans, do you see some monsters and people that look like you but aren't you, and are you afraid of the monsters and these people for the odd way they handle things? Monsters, do you see the people that have persecuted and hated you all your lives, until just recently? Do any of you see each other that way?"

Silence from the crowd.

"That's right." Star said. "You don't. You know why? Because in a situation like this, one where we're all under attack by a common enemy that wishes for our demise, there is still a small part of you that says, "Hey. These people aren't different than me. We have to stand together, and instead of drowning under an ocean of distrust and hatred, we have to rise to the surface, and make sure we stay there." And that one part, that little piece of you that's saying those things, that part became dominant. Because you know all of it. So stop, look back at each other, and do what you know is right. Help each other, any way you can. Give those money bags to each other. Offer any spare change you have. You don't even have to donate money! But help clean up the destruction! Sweep it away! Make it so that it looked like it never happened to begin with, and...and…"

Star looked at their faces. Understanding, listening faces, the message having gotten through to them.

"And we can finally get back to living as a community."

The crowd remained speechless.

Then a came a clap. Then another. Then less than a second later, the entire gaggle of people were applauding Star for her words, all of them seeing true meaning and truth behind them, as well as finally putting their anger aside.

But Star didn't bow. She didn't say thank you. She didn't seek any kind of award for the words she had said. She merely handed the microphone off to Eclipsa, then walked off backstage.

Both Eclipsa and the mayor watched her go with stunned expressions, wondering why they didn't just have her do the whole speech in them first place. Seeing her go, the crowd stopped their clapping, and turned their attention back to the duumvirate, both of whom who didn't even notice this at first.

"Um…" Eclipsa started, looking back at the crowd. "I guess all the words that had to be said have been said. Do you all get it now?" She asked. "What we must do to fix this situation?"

The crowd responded with quick nods, and several yells of "yes", and "we sure do."

"Wow, that really worked…" Eclipsa whispered. "Good. Now then, the mayor and I will pass out the sketches and pictures, so you can all look it for him and tell us if you see him."

The mayor went backstage for a moment and returned with several boxes, which Eclipsa grabbed three of. They got off the stage and started grabbing pieces of paper out of the boxes, handing them to the crowd like party favors.

Star and Marco on the other hand, were hidden from view and had just released each other from a tight hug, separating and staring at one another.

"Nice job." Marco said, applauding her in his own way. "That was a really good speech. I just hope that they actually took in everything, and won't go back to being angry by tomorrow."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Star said. "They listened. I could see it. They're not going to forget those words for a long time."

"Can I ask you a question?" Marco asked. "Did you plan that out beforehand? Like, did you write all that stuff down earlier, and plan to come on stage when it was all about to go to hell?"

"Nah. It just came to me in the moment." Star said. "They were about to storm the stage, and I knew I had to do something. So I did. But I'm going to be honest with you here Marco, I was only like...seventy percent sure that it would work. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't scared they would still charge the stage."

"Yeesh." Marco said. "Eighty percent Star. Always be eighty percent sure or higher. Anything below that is too big of a risk to take."

Star smiled. "Alright, safe ki-"

"Yes yes I know, safe kid. But I don't want you to get hurt." Marco said, putting his hand on Stars cheek.

"I hear that everyday Diaz." Star said, grabbing his hand and squeezing it.

"Maybe you need to…" Marco said, chuckling.

Star giggled lightly at this, and the two stared into each other's eyes. Almost like a reflex, Marco closed his and leaned in to kiss her, to which Star responded with doing the same. Their lips were just about to touch, and-

"Alright. You two." Eclipsa said out of nowhere, coming backstage. "The mayors passing the rest of those things out, and…umm...I'm...not interrupting anything, am I?" She asked, just noticing Star and Marco's faces being inches away from each other.

Star looked back into Marco's eyes, then at Eclipsa, and sighed before pulling away from Marco. "No, you're not." She said, although the tone in her voice was saying something quite different. Both of them got a look of disappointment on their faces for being interrupted. "But whatever. So, what now?"

"I'm just going to go back the monster temple." Eclipsa said. "Relax a bit after this whole thing. Aren't you two going to that beach day? You did say you would go after you helped us with this speech. Also, sorry for making you help us, but as we just saw...you're probably better at the speeches."

"It's no problem." Star said. "And yeah, we're probably going to go do that right now. Go home, get our things, and then Marco's mom is going to drive us there."

"Well, I hope you two have fun. We all need a break right now."

Star laughed. "A break...is one thing we've never truly had. I'm thinking of this more as a way to get away from it all for a while."

"That's exactly what a break is Star." Marco said.

"Is it?" Star said. "When all our problems are taken care of, then I would consider a break. But until then, I don't see it as one. But I do see it as a way to forget about all of them, so while we're there, I'm not going to worry about Bren, about money problems, about the Mewnian high council crap, or anything else like that. Just me, you, and that beach."

"Now that I like the sound of." Marco said. "I guess we should get back home, if we want to get to the beach early."

"Yup." Star said. "We're going Eclipsa. See you around."

"Got it. See you two around as well. L Don't forget about the other Mewnian high council meeting tomorrow. You two still have to tell everyone everything."

"Don't ruin it!" Star said. "Happy thoughts only!"

Eclipsa laughed a bit at this. "If you insist. But see you around."

"See you around Eclipsa." Marco said, taking Star's hand and leading the two of them away from the stage. They walked over to the sidewalk and headed for Marco's house.

"About getting there early," Star started. "I don't think we'll have to worry about that. It's only...8 in the morning. Eclipsa wanted to schedule this as soon as possible. Get the message out."

"If I'm being honest, I'm impressed that you agreed to come and help her. What with it being so early and all. Didn't you tell me a while back never to wake you up before eight o' clock? You got up at like seven."

"I guess so." Star said. "But the time for sleeping in is done. Not when there's more important things at stake. _I'm _surprised that so many people got up this early to get here. On a normal day like this, go out at 8 in the morning, there's hardly a soul on the streets. The people in this town really like to sleep in. Also because it's summer."

"Who can blame them?" Marco asked her. "They're in a whole new world. They need all the rest they can get to prepare themselves for the next day. Well, I suppose six months isn't that new, but they still have so much to get used to. Most humans in Echo creek still haven't gotten used to half the town looking like it's in medieval times, and most of the Mewmans and monsters still look in fear at any type of technology more advanced than a horse drawn cart. Do you remember how many reports the council got of magic still being around, when it was just some random thing like a plane or some person looking at a phone?"

"Heh." Star said, not really laughing, but instead just saying the word. "They'll get used to it. Six months is not enough time. Give it a year, or maybe two. By then, they should have gotten used to everything. We should give them some technology classes. As for the humans, they could just learn about Mewman and monster culture from similar classes. It'll help everybody get used to it."

"Well, the tourists definitely get used to it." Marco said, in a sort of complaining kind of voice. "In maybe three hours the towns gonna be filled with them. I kind of understand now why some cities aren't tourist friendly. It seems cool to have people visit your town at first, but after a while…"

"It gets annoying?" Star said, finishing his sentence. "Chill out. It's just the same formula. They look at Mewni stuff, take some pictures, buy some stuff, then leave."

"Sure." Marco said, before remembering something and trying to hold a laugh. "Hey. Do you remember that time my parents went to Mewni acting like tourists? They acted like it was some kind of vacation. I don't think any of the Mewmans were amused."

Star struggled to remember for a moment before bursting out laughing, her memories of the event coming back. "Wait, it wasn't that funny." She said. "I don't know why I'm laughing. Ah well, those were simpler days, weren't they?"

"You mean with Ludo trying to steal your wand all the time?" Marco asked, also fondly smiling of all the memories that were returning to him. "Simpler, sure, but I'm not going to say any easier. Speaking of Ludo, I wonder if we should go and check up on that whole monster freedom fighter council that was at his house.

I wonder what they're up to now that Mina's gone…"

"Probably not much." Star said. "After all, with that speech I just did, I don't think they'll have any work left to do…"

Marco nodded his head sadly. "When it comes to stuff like that Star, there's always going to be more work to do. It takes a long time to change people's opinions. Even if we show them that it's the right way."

"Then that's how we'll do it." Star said. "One person at a time. Bit by bit. I don't there to be a single person in this town who distrusts anybody else simply because they're not the same species."

"The enthusiasm is nice." Marco said. "But that's not really the biggest problem. I think we're ignoring the white-haired, orange-eyed elephant in the room. I don't care what the mayor says. The money is not the biggest problem, Br-"

"Don't say his name." Star said. "I don't want him to be mentioned or brought up a single time today. Beach day. Just us. None of that guy."

"...Ok." Marco said, not wanting to make Star upset. "Just us. And my mom for a while, because you know, she's driving us.

"Yeah. Yeah." Star said, smiling. "But _then _it's just us."

They kept walking. They tried as best they could to ignore the various buildings that had been smashed to pieces around them, and when they got to the fallen water tower, Star almost stopped and stared, before Marco pulled her along, remembering that she didn't want to be reminded of any of this.

They finally made it past the main town and got into the neighborhood, both of them breathing a sigh of relief. They kept walking until the reached Marco's house, and went in. Angie was busy sitting on the stairs in the foyer, waiting.

"Hey you two." She said. "You ready to go do that beach day? I've been sitting her for a half hour, so I hope so."

"Not...yet." Star said. "Sorry. We have to get all our stuff, but thankfully we prepared it last night. All we have to do it get into our bathing suits and we'll be ready to go. Again, sorry for making you wait."

"Oh, it's fine." Angie said. "I'm happy to see you two doing something together again. After everything that's happened lately, we all need to take a break."

"Not a break…" Star said, repeating the same thing she had said to Marco earlier. "But yeah, we need it. And this beach day is the perfect opportunity. Come on Marco, let's go get our swim suits on."

Both of them went upstairs, and came downstairs a few minutes later, with Marco in his swim trunks holding a towel and several bottles of sunscreen, while Star came down in her one piece bathing suit with a few bags full of random beach stuff. "Ready to go." She said, looking towards Angie.

"Aw, you two look perfect together." Angie said. "I can't wait until two all are grown up. Your father can't either Marco. If anything, he doesn't want to wait at all..."

"Thanks mom." Marco says, slightly blushing. "But we might be thinking a _little _too far ahead."

"I suppose." Angie said. "But let's get going before the traffic gets too crowded. Last time you said you got stuck in traffic before you got there."

"Yeah…and then I tried to give the car we are driving in wings. Didn't work out so well. The guy driving it yelled at us."

"Well, hopefully it works out better this time. Oh! One last thing. I packed you some snacks for later." She said, grabbing two bags sitting nearby and handing it to them. "Thanks Mrs. Diaz." Star said. "But one last, last thing. Where's Rafael? Is he around here?"

Angie waved her hand. "Oh, he's out at the speech Eclipsa was scheduled to give this morning. I started behind because I wanted to sleep in a little, but he went along."

"Really…" Marco said. "I didn't see him in the crowd. Huh. Maybe he left to go do something else. But whatever. Let's go."

And with that all said and done, they all headed outside and piled into the car, driving away from Echo creek towards the beach, with things looking much less like Mewni and more like Earth the farther away they got.

"Hmm, it looks like it was a good idea to leave early." Angie said. "There's not that many cars on the road, so there shouldn't be any traffic problems."

"I'm glad it was worth it." Star said. "On a normal morning, you'd have to drag me out of bed to get me up this early. But with Eclipsa's speech and beach happening, I think this was the earliest I've woken up all year."

Marco smiled. "That just proves that you can." Marco said. "It would be nice to see you up and about a little earlier at times. The early bird gets the worm."

"Yeah, but the worm got up early and died." Star said. "Two parts to that saying."

Marco was about to make some kind of clever remark to this, before he realized that Star was right. "Dang." He said. "Never thought about it that way. But that's only how it goes if you let yourself be the worm Star."

"I guess." Star said. "But how about we just all accept that I like waking up early, and nothing is going to change that. Cool? Cool."

The next few minutes of the ride was delivered in silence, with Star leaning her head on Marco's shoulder and the sounds of seagulls squawking above the car indicated that they were getting closer. Star stuck her head out the window and looked at them.

"Star, be careful." Marco said. "Don't stick your head out too far. A car could come along and-

"Don't care!" Star said, inhaling deeply. "Come on Marco, smell that sea air. It's a nice change. When was the last time we went here? And when do you think we'll go again."

"Technically we can go whenever we want." Marco said. "We'd just have to worry about it the consequences later."

"Ah, you're a buzzkill." Star said, putting her hand on his head and giving him a playful noogie. "Hey, Mrs. Diaz, are far away do you think we are?"

"Not too far…" Angie said. "The traffic's starting to get a little heavy up here, but it shouldn't be too long now."

"Thanks mom." Marco said. He looked over at Star. "So, what exactly are we gonna do at the beach?" He asked. "Just...do beach stuff? Like last time, except we're forgetting about that dumb photo?"

"It wasn't dumb." Star said, shaking her head. "But yeah, we won't have to worry about anything like that. We won't have to worry about anything! All negative thoughts being pushed out of my mind...now."

"Actually, " Angie said, looking at them through the car's rear view mirror. "Sorry if this is a negative thought, but can I know what Eclipsa told everybody at that speech? I asked Rafael to tell me when he got back, but if it's really important, I'd prefer to know as soon as possible."

Star sighed and put her head against the back of the seat. "Fine, if you really want to. We-"

"No Star, it's okay." Marco said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I'll tell her. Try and keep those thoughts out of your head. For your sake _and _mine. And beach day's."

"Thanks." Star said, leaning back in her seat again. "You can mention _him _if you want, but after that, please don't. But still, thanks."

Marco smiled, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and then turned back to Angie. "Okay mom, so basically, Eclipsa first told everybody to watch out for Bren and Tom."

"Who's Bren?"

"Oh. Right. You don't know who that is. He's...um, the guy that killed Mina and sent that demon to destroy the town. He looks as older than us, and like a lot of other people in the past, he wants to kill us, and he...likes fire? Maybe? There's a lot I could tell you."

"Oh, is that all?" Angie said. "I feel like I should be more worried about someone trying to kill you, but after all the horror stories you've told me about Ludo, Toffee, Meteora, and who knows who else, I think I'm pretty confident that you can handle whoever Bren is. Especially now that magic's gone."

"Well, not really." Marco mumbled. "There's still demon magic…"

"What?" Angie said. "Sorry, what was that part?"

"It's...nothing." Marco said. "But anyways. I would be feeling pretty confident as well, if it was just him, which it's not. He has Tom. He's controlling him."

Angie first oft a second and then swiveled her had around to look at Marco. "Tom? Your demon friend? How did-"

"Mom! Eyes on the road!"

"Oh, sorry." Angie said, turning her head back around. "But what do you mean he's controlling Tom? I thought he was on...your side, I guess? What happened."

"We don't know." Marco said, looking at his reflection in the window. "Bren has this weird black device with a button on it, and when Tom balked at his order, he threatened to press it. And Tom looked terrified. So however Bren's making Tom do what he says, it's not with mind control. It's just with some kind of leverage."

"Okay, now I'm more worried." Angie said. "That means that there could be more people Bren is controlling. Was there anybody else?"

"I would suspect the rest of the Lucitors." Marco said. "They haven't been to the last few council meetings, and considering that Bren has Tom, and has access to a giant demon, I think it's safe to say that maybe the entire Underworld could be under his thumb."

"Well, maybe that's it." Angie said. "Maybe that's the leverage that Bren has."

Marco looked look at the window and turned towards his mother. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what if the Lucitors are his leverage?" Angie explained. "I'm sure Tom loves his family, and if Bren has the Underworld under his control, then maybe Tom's parents are what's Bren is using against him. Maybe him pressing that button sends a signal to the Underworld that does something. Like kill his parents. I know that if someone threatened me with that, then I would do anything they wanted."

Maroc thought about this for a second and his eyes widened. "Holy...shit."

Angie looked at him in what could only be described as pure disappointment. "Marco, please mind your wor-"

"Wait." Marco said. "I mean, sorry, but that actually makes a lot of sense. Bren has Tom. He has the Lucitors. He might have the Underworld. He could probably find some way to do _whatever _he wanted with them. Use Tom as his little murder tool, make the Lucitors command the armies of demons...or just use them to make Tom-oh my god! That's exactly it, isn't it? That's how he getting Tom to do all those things! He's-"

"Marcoooo…" Star groaned. "Please stop talking about all that stuff."

"B-but Star!" Marco exclaimed. "Don't you see? My moms right! That's it! It may be something else, sure, but it makes perfect sense. How Tom's acted, how Bren is controlling him, the entire Lucitor family disappearing and the demon showing up-"

"I know!" Star yelled. "I'll be honest with you. Yeah, in all likelihood, that's what's going on. But this is beach day. We handle this when we get _back _from beach day. When we go to the Mewnian high council meeting tomorrow. Beach today, Bren tomorrow. There are two B's in this situation, and I know which one I'm picking."

"Bu-"

"No Marco, she's right." Angie said. "I shouldn't have asked. I know you said you wanted it forget everything for a while and have fun. So go do that." The car came to a sudden halt. "Because we're here. The beach is just over there. You two do whatever you want, and then call me when you're ready for me to pick you up."

Marco looked at them. Against his better judgment, he consented to their decision. "Ok. Let's go have that beach day. We can worry about the guy trying to _kill us _tomorrow."

"That's right." Star said. "Who needs worries? They're worries! We don't need em." She grabbed her stuff and exited the car, followed by Marco a second later.

"See you mom." He said. "Thanks for driving us."

"It's no problem. You have fun with Star. But make sure to...watch out for anything. If Bren really has Tom, then-"

"Thanks Mrs. Diaz, goodbye!" Star said, turning around and walking towards the beach.

Marco looked at Star and then gave his mom a sheepish smiles "I'll watch out. Make sure nothing happens."

"Just try as hard as you can." Angie said. "I've only seen her like this a few times. Take care of her."

"I will." Marco said. "See you later Mom."

"See you later as well." Angie said, a smile coming back to her face. She turned the steering wheel around and drove off down the road. Marco watched the car drive away into the distance and then caught up with Star. "So what are we doing first?" He asked, walking next to her.. "I asked this earlier, but you never really told me."

"Well, I was thinking we could just do some beach stuff first." Star said. "You know, lay on a towel under an umbrella, go swim out into the waves, make some sand castles or something, stuff like that. After that, we can get some lunch on the boardwalk, and then we'll call your mom to come pick us up."

"Sounds like a plan." Marco said. They kept walking own the sidewalk, until they reached the small hill that led to the beach. Climbing up it, they stopped at the top and stared out at the ocean.

"Wow." Star said. "It looks even better than when we came here last time. Lot less people too. We have it all to ourselves."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Marco asked her. "Let's go have our beach day."

"Right!" Star said, moving forward and pulling an umbrella and a towel out of her bag, setting them down on the sand.

"Wait, Star, wait." Marco said. "Put some sunscreen on. I don't want you to get burned and then not be able to sleep on your back for a week."

Star flared over at Marco, inhaled deeply and then cleared her throat. "SAFE KI-"

"Yes yes I get it!" Marco said. "But still, I don't want for tomorrow to come around and you to wake up with half your skin turned fiery red."

"If you insist…" Star said, turning her back to him. "But get my back and shoulders for me. I can't reach them."

Marco blushes slightly at the thought and then did as she said, spraying some sunscreen in and wiping it down with his hands, doing his best to make it as un-awkward as possible.

Star stared out into the ocean waves. "You know Marco, people always say that if you stare out at ocean waves for a while, you start to think about life and how insignificant you are to the rest of the universe. I think that's happening right now…"

Maroc chuckled. "You got rid of magic Star. You and me merged Mewni and Earth together. I would say that you're pretty significant to the universe. Now, can you get my back? I finished putting sunscreen on yours."

"Sure." Star said, with the two of them now switching positions. "After this, I'm just gonna go into the waves. Swim around a little. Have some fun. Go and entertain myself. Maybe try and catch a fish with my bare hands like my dad always wanted me to try."

"I'll make you a bet." Marco said, turning around and grinning at her. "If you actually manage to do that, I'll take a bite out of that fish, then and there. Raw."

Star couldn't help but bend over in laughter at this. "Why would you do that?"

"Eh, I don't know." Marco said, shrugging. "Maybe I want to see if you can actually do that. I'd be impressed."

Star gasped. "Huh! After all this time, your secrets are revealed Diaz! You didn't care about Mewni, you were just trying to get me to become a better fisherwoman!"

Marco snorted. "God, it sounds ridiculous now. But that bet is still on. You done applying that sunscreen?"

"Yup." Star said, finishing up and putting more sunscreen in her arms and legs, while Marco did the same. "Now let's get a move on! I'd like to do as much as possible before noon!"

Both of them got up and went over to the water, where they let the waves crash into their feet, and both of them shuddered at the cold.

"Can never get used to that." Marco, going in a few inches deeper. "Worst part is when your bathing suit gets wet and sticks to your skin, and after that you just have to go one centimeter at a time."

"Hm, I think it's better to do it all at once and get it over with." Star said. "Sure, you'll be freezing for a while, but you get used to it really quick."

"And I think you're insane for saying that." Marco said. "Mental hospital? We have a code D! D for deranged! Better get the straight jacket."

Star rolled her eyes and then leaped at Marco, grabbing his head and dunking his entire body under the water. She let go of him a second later, and he got up and wiped water of his eyes while gasping for air.

"See?" Star said playfully. "Isn't it better to get it all over with?"

"Oh my god!" Marco yelled, shivering and looking like he had just been shoved in a freezer. "I don't think I'll be warm for the rest of the day…"

"Oh blah." Star said. "You'll be fine in five minutes. Here, I'll show you just how easy it is." She dove into the water, disappearing from view and coming up a few seconds later, now shaking as much as Marco was. "S-see?" She said, her teeth chattering. "The w-waters f-fine!"

"Sure Star." Marco said. "Sure it is." Both of them they stayed where they were for a few moments, getting used to the water and submerging themselves at random times. As they waded deeper out past the waves crashing into the beach, Star eventually started looking for seashells, while Marco searched the water for any fish, ready to pull Star away from them incase one appeared. He already regretted making that bet.

Star dove down and came back up a few seconds later, swimming over towards Marco and showing him a seashell. "See?" She said, holding it out in front of him. "This ones nice. It kind of reminds me of...hm. I don't know. But it looks familiar."

Marco looked down and inspected the shell. It was bright orange and vaguely shaped like a rock, and didn't look like any shell he had ever seen. Under the sunlight above, the rock seemed to glow, almost like a natural lamp provided by the sea. 'Why would she be reminded of something by that shell?' He thought. 'I can think of anything that...wait…'

Marco suddenly remembered why Star would think that was familiar. 'A week ago.' He thought. 'Back at the diner. Before all this Bren crap went down. She mentioned she had a dream where she saw some kind of glowing rock. Before the town burst into flames. I-I think it would be best to get rid of this before she remembers that.'

Marco took the shell out of his hand and set it back down on the seafloor. "I don't think it would be a good idea to keep that one Star. Some shells can hide animals, and I think that was one of them."

"Oh…" Star said. "Oh well. Still looked pretty. I'm gonna the and find some more!" She then did a nosedive into the water, not even bothering to take a breath first. Marco looked into the water and then fell on his back, letting himself float gently above the surface of the water.

'So far it's been pretty good.' He thought to himself. 'Other than a close call with that shell, beach day is going just swell. Hopefully we don't run into any other problems. I'm not sure if either of us could take it.'

"Hey Marcooo…" Star said, having seemingly come back up for air.

"Yeah Star?" He asked, still staring at the sky.

"Look what I got…"

Marco suddenly felt a twinge of fear and lifted his head. Star was standing in front of him, grinning from ear to ear and holding what looked like some kind of trout in her hand, the fish flopping around and gasping for air.

"No…" Marco said, standing back up.

"Come here!"

"NONONONONO-"

**A little while later…**

After a few minutes of Star chasing Marco around with the fish, he had managed to convince her that his bet was only a joke, and Star sighed and tossed it back into the ocean. They both got out of the water and dried themselves off, and now they were simply laying in their towels under the umbrella.

"Shame you didn't take a bite out of that fish." Star said. "But even if your bet wasn't a joke, I wouldn't have expected you to do it. Especially not while it was still flopping around."

"Yeah, totally a joke." Marco said. "I think I'm gonna lay here for a while, maybe try and get a tan."

"I'm pretty sure that requires some kind of lotion."

"And I'm pretty sure that's optional, but who knows. Look in your bag, maybe you got some in there."

Despite knowing that she probably didn't, Star got up and grabbed her bag, rummaging around in and looking for suntan lotion. After three minutes of searching multiple times, she found none and gave up.

'None in there.' She thought as she prepared to lie back down. 'Hmmm, maybe next time we come here, I should bring some. I don't think I've ever gotten a tan before. I wonder what I would look like-'

Her thought process stopped dead in it's track as she looked down at the beach and saw someone walking in front of the water, wearing a red bathing suit and having long spiky hair.

It was Tom.

Or was it?

Star couldn't see straight. For a moment, it almost felt like her vision was blurred, and the entire world looked like it was stuck in a permanent state of obscurity, everything unfocused and hard to see.

Star got up and slowly walked towards Tom, who was busy staring out at the waves. She couldn't think. How was here? Without Bren? What was going-

"Hey." Marco said.

Star jumped at the sound of his voice and looked over at him. He was sitting up and staring at her, with a visible look of confusion on his face. After she saw this, the world around her seemed to come back into focus, and nothing was blurry anymore, almost as if she had just woken up from a dream.

"Uh, what is it?" She asked.

"You were staring at that guy with the salmon hair." Marco said. "You got up and started to walk towards him like you were in a trance. What was that?"

Star turned away from Marco and looked back at Tom, who now didn't resemble Tom in the slightest, except for a similar hair color and style. It was just some random human walking down the beach. For some reason, she had seen him in a completely different way.

"I just...I thought…" Star started. "I thought I recognized him."

"Hm." Marco said. "Well, I'm gonna lie back down and try and take a nap. All that stuff we did in the water tired me out."

"Okay, that's cool." Star said, still look at the salmon-haired guy. "I'm gonna go...make a sand castle."

She left Marco behind and walked down towards the water, grabbing a handful of wet sand and trying to sculpt it.

'What was that?' She thought. 'Why did I see that guy as Tom? Was I hallucinating? Some kind of mirage? Or did I just see what I wanted to see? Or...no. None of that. Beach day. No Bren. No Tom. Ignore it, and move on. Make something with the sand.' She looked back at Marco. 'And I know just what to make…'

Back under the umbrella, Marco closed his eyes and attempted to fall asleep, but wasn't having much luck. He moaned in annoyance and rolled into his side, staring at a small pile of sand next to the towel.

'Maybe I'll just count sand.' He thought. 'Should bore me into falling asleep. That or I can just imagine one of the council meetings where I'm not involved. I'll admit it, those things are the most tedious, dull, and contemptible things I can think of. There are times where I can see why the royals want to leave so often…'

"Marco!" Star called out, knocking him out of his semi-stupor. "Look what I made!"

Marco lifted his head and glanced over at Star, where she was sitting about twenty feet away with a large mound of sand at her feet. Marco got up and walked over to her, looking at the sand pile.

"So...what is it supposed to be?" He asked, unable to make anything of it.

Star scoffed. "It's supposed to be you! I thought I did a really good job on it. See, those are your ears, that's your nose, that little rock there is your mole, and I tried to find some seaweed for hair, but all I found were some sticks." Star grabbed a few dried out twigs from a small pile she had and stuck them in tip of the sand pile. "There. Now it's complete. Admit it, it looks likes you."

Marco tilted his and inspected it. While it could have a resemblance to a head in _some _way, it certainly didn't look like his. Star really needed to work on making sand art. But it did remind him of something else, before she put the sticks in.

"I don't know Star." He said. "I think it's good, but I wouldn't know it's supposed to be me unless you told me. In fact, it looks like something else altogether."

Star sighed and sat down on the sand. "Yeah, I should have spent a little more time on it. But what does it look like to you?"

Marco clenched his teeth and then slowly look at Star. "It looks...it looks like…"

"Like what?" Star asked him, getting impatient. "Spit it out Diaz! I want to hear this."

"It looks like the magic sanctuary." Marco blurted out, before quickly shutting his mouth.

Star paused and looked down at it. 'What is he talking about?' She thought. 'It doesn't look anything like that! And didn't I say I didn't want to be reminded of any of that stuff? That was...was…' She leaned in and took a closer look at it, inspecting every grain of sand pile an archeologist inspecting an ancient artifact. 'No...It, it does look like the sanctuary. It's got a similar shape, the mount I made looks exactly like it's door, and it even has indents what looks to be little windows! I don't remember making those! Did my subconscious somehow have me make those indents, or was it just a coincidence? What did...okay, you know what, screw it.'

Star frowned and stood up, not wanting to think about it any longer. She drew her foot back and kicked the sand sculpture, causing it to fall apart and crumble back into a shapeless pile of sand.

"No more making sand sculptures." Star said. "I'm gonna go back under the umbrella and relax a little bit. Wake me up when it's noon, and then we'll go get some lunch on the boardwalk." Star turned around and walked towards her towel, literally falling on top of it when she reached it. She rotated herself around and laid on her back, staring at nothing and thinking of nothing.

"Okay." Marco said, dumbfounded by her behavior. "Guess I'll just walk down the beach then…" He strolled over to the edge of the water and started ambling away from Star on it's edge, the water just barely touching him as the waves came in. He took each step slowly, feeling the wet sand between his toes and gazing at the ocean, not sure if he was looking for dolphins leaping out of the waves or thinking about life as a whole, like Star had mentioned earlier.

A few minutes later his walk, Marco came across two more people on the beach. It was some young couple, sitting on a towel and talking with each other, occasionally kissing as well. Marco peered at then, almost as if they were stuck in a fog. He let out a sigh of exasperation, looking away from them and then swiveling around to walk back down the beach.

"That should be us." He said to himself. "It should be me and Star, talking to each other in our towels, and kissing each other. We _were _like that! Just a week ago! That's all we did! Talk to each other and kiss! What the hell happened? What happened to our relationship that could have...have...oh, right." Marcos face turned into a scowl. "_He _happened. That little white-haired shit. What is he doing all this for? What does he get out of it? Is he here right now, watching us from somewhere?! Is he everywhere, never leaving us alone until we're dead at his feet?!" He turned towards the sky. "IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT BREN?! IF WE BOTH DIE, WILL YOU LEAVE EVERYBODY ELSE ALONE?!"

There was nobody there to answer him, except for a few nearby seagulls who squawked and flew away at his outburst. Marco watched them fly away and then sat down in the sand, letting the waves hit him. But he didn't feel any of it.

"He's just...ruining everything." Marco said to himself. "Our life, our relationship, our friends, all of it is going straight to hell. Even today, beach day, a day we love, was just ruined because of that stupid sand castle. Why did I have to say it looked like that? Why didn't I just keep my mouth shut?"

"**Because you were worried about her."**

Marco jumped back at the sudden voice in his head, before remembering where he had heard that before. "Oh no. Nononono. Get the hell out of here Brainsaya, or whatever you called yourself. I do _not _need this right now."

"**I'm not the Brainsaya. The Brainsaya was a figment of your mind that decided you weren't good enough for Star, and told you as such. But I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you get through this whole problem. Because your brain decided you needed it. Which, you obviously do."**

"Well, isn't that convenient." Marco said. "Tell me, what should I do next? Go get Star? Leave this beach? Try and convince her that Bren can't do anything to us and we'll get through it together, like I've told her a hundred times in the past few days? Or should-"

"**Shut up and listen! Like the Brainsaya said, arguing with me would only be yelling at yourself. Don't act like that."**

"Fine". Marco said. "Say your damn peace. But it better be good."

"**It is. Now, it doesn't matter what you think about all this. If you want your relationship with Star to stay healthy and loving, then you need to go to her, get some lunch with her at the boardwalk, and make sure nothing else happens today that can upset her."**

"How?" Marco asked. "I don't exactly control the world."

"**You can control enough. See that red-haired guy again, which reminded her of Tom? Make her look the other way before she sees him."**

"Wait, so that's why she was staring at hi-"

"**Not done yet. See a sand castle that looks like the sanctuary? Push it over, even if it's not yours. Dick move, yes, but absolutely necessary. Mind your words as well. Don't mention Bren or Tom, that much is clear. But also make sure not to mention fire, the Mewnian high council, or anything of the sort. It would bring up memories, and this isn't a day to focus on the past."**

"Don't you think I know that?!" Marco yelled. "That's what I've been trying to make it. It actually went pretty well at first! But now it's ruined. Star's gonna be in a bad mood, and then we're just gonna go home, and I'm gonna have to sleep in my own bed tonight, without her next to me, all because of a stupid pile of sand!"

"**..."**

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Nothing I can do to avoid it. Once she gets in a mood, it's almost impossible to break her out of it."

"**What about the night before you went to the sanctuary and met Bren? She was **_**pissed **_**at you. But you came back. She came back. You both got back in that bed together, and managed to forget all the yelling. That's who we are. A person who won't give up on Star. Now get up, shut up, and go get some lunch with her like I said. Act like nothing happened, and that will be the thing that helps her. Seeing. You. Happy."**

Marco contemplated all of this, and then got up without saying a word, deciding to trust his inner voices judgment. He made it back to Star after a few minutes of walking, and went up to her.

"Heeey…" He said, nervousness evident in his voice. "I'm kind of hungry, so...uh, do you wanna go to the boardwalk with me and grab some lunch?"

"We have some snacks." Star said, not even looking at him. "The ones that your mom gave us. We can eat those."

"**Don't let up!" **Marco's inner voice yelled. "**Don't let that happen! Say you'll pay for it. Play cute. Do anything. Don't let her lie there and just get more and more angry with the world."**

Maroc nodded. "Aww, come on Star." He said. "We planned this whole thing beforehand! Besides, I'm sure the boardwalk might have some really good food! I'd love to spend some time there with you."

Star perked up. "Really? Right now? I'm trying to rest, but guess that could be kinda fun…with you."

"**Yes. Yes! It's working. Now seal the deal! Finish it!"**

"It will be fun." Marco said. "One of the boardwalk shops might have nachos…"

_That _did the trick. Star got up and grabbed me her things. "Okay, I can't say no to that." She said, a smile returning to her face. She rolled up her towel and shoved it in her bag, along with all the other stuff. "Besides, I think I'm beached out. Let's go eat something, and then we'll call your mom for her to come get us."

"Good plan." Marco said, grinning like an idiot. They both left the beach behind, heading towards the nearby boardwalk and looking for someplace to eat. As it was still early, there weren't that many places to eat, but eventually they found a concession stand that sold nachos, and got a giant tub for both of them to share.

"**Nice job." **The inner voice said, as Star and Marco sat down at a nearby bench and began eating. "**Not exactly what I'd call lunch, and extremely unhealthy, but good enough."**

"Damn straight." Marco whispered. "Nothing is ruining this anymore."

Then something came along and ruined it.

Star's attention suddenly drifted from the nachos to a guy walking past them. It wasn't the Tom look-alike, but they did resemble someone much worse. Marco looked up and saw him as well, his heart dropping at the sight. The man looked normal, except for sporting a ridiculous mop of dyed white hair. As he walked past them and disappeared down the boardwalk, Star kept staring in his direction.

"Hey…" She started

"**Nooooo…"**

"Didn't that guy look like…"

"**Nonono!"**

"...Bren?"

"**Damn it! Damnitdamnitdamnit! Now we'll have to start all over again!"**

Thinking fast, Marco spoke up. "It doesn't." He said. "Let's get back to eating."

But Star didn't respond. She got up, scrunched her face up, and then started to walk off, which turned into a run. She ducked behind one of the closed shops, and Marco could start to hear faint crying.

"Oh no." He said, putting the nachos aside. He ran over to the shop and looked behind it. "Star? Are you okay?"

She most certainly was not. She had her head down, crying softly, her tears falling off her face and staining the pavement beneath her.

"Listen Star." Marco said. "It's okay. Just because-"

Star turned around and rushed at Marco, grabbing his shoulders and burying her face in his chest. "I can't do this anymore!" She sobbed. "I can't just pretend that everything's okay and that I'm not scared of what comes next. I've been worried sick about everything this whole time. What if Bren attacks us on our beach day? What if he attacks the town while we're gone? What if we're not able to help Tom? What will happen if...if...if he kills you to get to me?! I'll have nothing! Just an empty hole in my heart, and then Bren will finish the job by tearing it right out of my body."

She let go of him and fell to her knees. "I'm supposed to be the princess of Mewni. A person that can defend her people from danger. And I can do that! I've done it before! I've kicked people threatening my kingdom straight out of Mewni back to whatever dimension they came from! But I can't do it now. I don't have magic. I'm useless. I'm just like everyone else. And Bren isn't."

"No." Marco said. "You're not useless. You've never needed magic before to do amazing things Star. I've seen you. For six months, when you weren't spending time with me, you were working as hard as you could to make sure that Earthni would work for everybody. And it does. Your speech earlier today. Did you forget that? That was amazing! You didn't need magic! You saw those people! They believed in you! So take up that position! Be the leader and speaker that I know you are! Just because this one day went badly, that doesn't mean that everyday will go badly."

Star looked up at him, sniffling. "But Bren-"

"Who cares?" Marco said. "He's nothing but some fire obsessed teenager that has mental issues. We've faced worse. We've stopped worse things than him, and even without magic...there's nothing he could do that would ever tear us apart. I promise that no matter what, I'll stay with you until the end."

Star wiped her eyes and nose with her arm, slowly standing back up. "You know something?" She said.

"I was worried that you were worried too. That you would break down crying just like me when you saw that guy walk past us. But now that I see that you didn't...I think that means that I don't have to either."

Marco embraced her in a tight hug. "I'm glad." He said. "I don't want to see you like that. Nobody should, especially yourself."

Star hugged him back, her fingernails digging into his back. "Then I won't let it happen again. I'll stay strong for everybody. I won't let Bren get to me ever again. Not as long as you're here."

"Then we're in agreement." Marco said. "Now let's go finish those nachos, and then let's go home and have the rest of the day to ourselves."

Star nodded, and then leaned on his shoulder as they walked back to the bench, Marco waving a few seagulls away that were pecking at her food, much to Star's laughter. They sat back down next to each other and resumed eating, not saying a word but knowing that no more words had to be said.

Well, almost no words.

"**Well done. Very well done." **Marco's brain said. "**I'm glad I didn't have to step in, and you managed to handle it by yourself."**

"Thanks." Marco whispered. "But are you gonna leave now? Even if you're still part of my brain, I want it to be just me and Star."

"**Certainly. I serve no more purpose. Our time together was short, but I'd say very productive. Adieu. But I will return eventually. Probably. Hopefully."**

It vanished, and now it was just Star and Marco, sitting alone together, like they both wanted it. Sure, that tub of nachos would be empty In a few minutes, and soon they would both have to leave that bench, but right now, in this moment, it felt like it lasted forever.

And that was right.

**End chapter 13.**

**A/N: Under normal circumstances, I would have ended it on a low note, with Bren appearing in the background, scheming. But not this time. **

**Sorry for the long wait. Schools been a pain, even more so than usual, so I hope you all understand. From now on, the usual one week wait will be replaced by a wait of who knows? But it will be longer than a week.**

**Also, my notes for the second half of this chapter were written in orange crayon on the back of a restaurant menu. I'm not sure if that reflects back into this chapter, but I thought I would share that for whatever reason.**

**Until next time.**


	14. Chapter 14: Marco Diaz Vs Bren's friends

**Aflame**

**Chapter 14 **

**Marco Diaz Vs Bren's friends**

"Marcoooo…"

"..."

"Marco."

"..."

"MARCO!"

"Ahh!" Marco's eyes shot open at the sound of Star screaming his name like bloody murder, and before he even knew what he was doing, he quickly let go of her and nearly falling off the bench they were sitting on.

Star glanced over at him and sighed. "About time." She said. "At first you not waking up was kind of cute, and then it got kind of weird, and then it just got annoying."

"Sorry…" Marco said, rubbing his neck. He took a quick look around. It was still all the same. Same beach, same bench, and the same boardwalk, except for the fact that there were much more people than when they had arrived.

"How long was I out?" He asked. "Boardwalks a lot more packed than it was before, so I'm gonna guess a while…"

"Eh, it hasn't been that long." Star said. "Maybe a half hour. I would have woken you up earlier, but you started leaning on my shoulder, and I didn't really want to interrupt your little nap."

Marco chuckled. "I think we both know the _real _reason you didn't push me off you Star." He said, scooching near her until their shoulders were touching. "If you want, I'll let you fall asleep on me. Even it out a little bit."

Star's cheek turned a faint shade of red and she smiled. "I think it's okay. We should get going anyways. Don't want your mom or anybody else to get worried about us. Do you still have your cell phone?"

"I...thought you had yours." Marco said, a flicker of fear appearing in his eyes.

"No...I left it back at the house." Star said. "I thought you would take care of that!"

"Why didn't you tell me that?"

"Why didn't _you _tell _me_?"

"Because-okay, nevermind. Not a big deal. I'll just ask someone if I can borrow their phone, call my mom, and then it'll all be fine. There's no reason we should fight over this."

"Agreed." Star said. "Totally agree with you there. Last thing we need right now is another thing ruining beach day, and we've had plenty of those in the last few hours."

"No kidding…" Marco said, before walking up to the closest person he could find. In this case it a guy carrying a surfboard and a bag that looked like it was made of rubber.

"Uh, hi." Marco said, as the guy with the surfboard looked at the teen who was blocking his path. "Do you have a phone that me and my girlfriend could borrow for a few minutes? We kinda forgot both of ours, and we need to make a call. Is that okay?"

The surfer dude looked down at Marco and stared at him.

And stared.

And stared.

He kept staring at Marco like an art critic looking at a classical painting.

"Are...you okay?" Marco asked him, wondering if he was either deaf, or simply not listening to a single word. "You understand me, right?"

The surfer dude looked away and turned towards nothing.

Then without warning, his entire body started shaking, and then he and the surfboard seemed to collapse, then liquify, and then finally both of them melted and hit the ground as a pile of misshapen red goo, sounding like a wet towel hitting a wall.

Marco slowly looked down at the puddle, now seeping through the cracks of the boardwalk and disappearing. His mouth was open so wide in shock that his jaw would break if it went any further. It had happened so suddenly and abruptly that Marco could only look on in shock at first.

Then he found his voice and responded appropriately.

"Wha...wha...WHAT THE FUCK?! I-YOU-STAR, DID YOU SEE THAT? HE-"

Before he could say anything more, the ground suddenly shook beneath him, visibly bouncing up and down as if the entire earth had been thrown against a wall. Marco attempted to stay on his feet, but like a wave of wood expanding towards him, the boardwalk was shattered into pieces when the floor shook with another gigantic heave, the planks of wood that made it up flying through the air like bouncy balls.

Marco didn't even have time to move before the wave of exploding planks hit him, propelling the slab he was standing on through the air, and he soared away from what remained of the boardwalk, hitting the soft sand of the beach twenty feet away. He lay there for a moment, feeling like someone had just beaten him down with brass knuckles. Once the initial pain and shock subsided, he slowly forced myself to get up, his limbs aching so much it felt like that would fall off.

He attempted to speak, but his lungs felt like they had been replaced with his heart, and were racing at two hundred fifty beats per minute. 'C-come on.' He thought. 'You just got the air knocked out of you. You can feel your arms. You can feel your legs. They aren't broken. Find Star. Make sure she's alright. Do it. Get...up!'

Marco lifted his head and looked around at the beach and looked at the boardwalk. Although it really couldn't be called that anymore. It was in complete ruins, splinters of wood slowly drifting through the air like feathers, and the beach looking like it had been turned into the Sahara, giant dunes of sand having emerged out of nowhere, courtesy of the ground being turned inside out.

Marco took in several gigantic gulps of air and attempted to speak. "S-Star!" He tried to yell out, although it came out as a pitiful whimper, audible to no one. He slammed his fist into the sand out of frustration, but calmed himself and slowly picked himself up, surveying the destruction.

"Was that an earthquake?" He thought, before realizing that he had forgotten what had happened right before that. 'No, it had to be something else. That guy carrying the surfboard...he turned into a pile of sludge! What in the hell was what? Is...is this Bren? Did he do this? No, that doesn't make any sense. Setting things on fire and killing people with demons are one thing, but controlling the elements and turning people into piles of sludge is...impossible. There's no magic. No spell to do anything like they with. He wouldn't-"

Realization hit Marco hit the face like a brick wall, and he recalled the events of the previous few days. Magic _was _still around. Demon magic. Rituals. Tom having his powers and Janna with all her secrets.

'Oh shit. Oh shit! The Underworld...he might control all of it. And the demon magic and all those rituals that Janna talked about…did he use one? Was that what all this was? Did he follow us here?!'

He suddenly panicked and started to run, before his chest reminded him of why he couldn't speak, and he collapsed to the ground, feeling like he just had a heart attack.

'Go slow. Go slow.' He thought. 'Running will make it worse. Get up again. But don't push yourself. Star's fine. She has to be. Whatever's happening, I'm sure it's nothing she can't handle.'

He got up again, clutching the sand and moving as slow as he could. After a minute or two of pure agony, he got himself back in his feet and moved back towards the destroyed boardwalk, bit by bit. He gazed at the various pieces of woods sticking out of the sand, almost looking natural.

He soon tried to call out for Star again, but his voice never left his throat, and the only noises he heard was the sound of his footsteps in the sand, the squawking of distant seagulls, and the faint crashing of the waves hitting the beach.

Which vanished a second later.

Maroc paused and stopped moving, trying to determine if he was hearing what he thought he was hearing. Which was to say, nothing at all. But there was no mistake. The sound of the waves had vanished, and Marco began to get a terrible feeling in his stomach. He turned around and looked at the ocean.

It was disappearing. All of it. Moving further and further out, showing no signs of coming back in. The entire sea was soon replaced with an empty, soggy desert, with fish that hadn't been fast enough to stay with the water flopping around in the sand.

'No no no no…'Marco thought, the feeling in his stomach tripling. He knew what this meant. He had to find Star. He had no time to waste. Moving as fast as he could without screaming in pain, he hobbled back towards the boardwalk, still trying to yell out Star's name every minute or so. He once more looked back at the ocean, only to see that it was finally returning, but in the form of a fifty foot high wall of water, moving faster than anything had the right to be.

Not even having time to say anything, Marco froze in place, transfixed in terror as the wave came down upon the beach, the impending wave sounding like an otherworldly roar. But calling it a simple wave would be inaccurate. The top of water wasn't curling over to hit the beach, but instead it was as if the entire ocean had picked itself up and gliding towards the land. He attempted to run, but his legs just weren't listening to his brain, and he looked up one last time as it surged over the sand dunes and crashed into him.

Instantly he entered what could only be described as a whole new world, being unable to see or hear anything but darkness and the constant roar, but still able to feel plenty. The water tossed him around like a dog with a chew toy, the sheer weight of the tsunami almost crushing him. He tried to swim to the surface, but any attempt at fighting it was futile. There was just no way, and the only thing he could do was hope that whatever magical god being that had probably caused the tsunami was in a merciful mood.

But whatever hope he had turned to despair as his vision faded and and an avalanche of water flowed into his lungs. The last thing he saw was a faint vision of Star, familiar faces, and random events from his life, all flashing before him. Accepting that there was nothing left he could do, he let himself sink to the bottom, still being pulled along against his will, and the last thing he saw was-

CRACK! In a sudden explosion of pain and sound, Marco was slammed into one of the boardwalks support pillars, back first. Despite hurting so much that he could see actual stars, he reacted quickly and wrapped his arms and legs around the pillar, making sure that the water wouldn't carry him any further. He clenched his teeth as he felt hundreds of tiny pieces of debris from the boardwalk slash his skin, the pillar doing almost nothing to protect him. It started getting so intense that he was afraid he would bleed out before he drowned.

But after what seemed like days, the water finally stopped moving, and came to a standstill that was safe enough to move in. Marco continued to clench his eyes shut and clawed his way up the pillar, the pain across his body now so intense that the water could have been acid, and he wouldn't have known the difference.

Somehow, despite having been underwater long enough that he should have drowned five times over, he ultimately made it to the surface of the water, grasping the top of the pillar and pulling himself up. He gasped for air, and then vomited an obscene amount of seawater, mixed with blood that was such a dark shade of red it was almost black in color.

He hung on to the top of the pillar when his mouth stopped acting like a miniature waterfall, and stayed there for a few seconds. He was in such a state of shock that he didn't even feel any pain. Nothing from his back, from the hundreds of cuts he had just received, nothing. He felt completely empty. It was like his soul had been ripped from his body.

Once he had gotten tired of waiting, and when the pain started to return, he groaned and pulled himself onto the pillar, perching himself on top of it. He sat there for a moment before lifting his head and looking around, wiping away the water that was dripping into his eyes.

"My god…"

It was a new world. The wave had demolished everything in its path, leaving nothing but an endless carpet of water. The only thing that was visible above the surface of the water were a few pillars like the one he was sitting on, along with a few damp pieces of wood. But everything else was buried underneath the infinite lake before him, crashing into each other like pinballs.

Marco didn't even know what to do. Wait for rescue? Try and swim for a better vantage point? Keep calling out, hoping that someone was there? No. No, none of these options worked. He might bleed out from the dozens of tiny gashes he received while hanging on to the pillar before rescue arrived. He was in no condition to swim. And everybody else that was on the boardwalk or beach at the time was definitely dead, either turned to liquid like that one guy or killed by the earthquake or tidal wave. Marco then stopped his thought process and froze, remembering the guy with the surfboard for the second time.

'What had that been?' Marco thought, thinking being the only option he had left. 'I've never seen anything like that, even when magic was still around. I can get the earthquake, and the tsunami happening right after it, but why did that guy melt? I didn't see anybody else melting. Unless Star did and I didn't see it...no. She's fine. Don't think about that. If I made it through this, then so can she.'

Not realizing that him surviving was by dumb luck alone, Marco convinced himself that Star was fine, and turned his attention back to his injuries as the pain started to return. The blood dripping off of him was painting the water around him a new shade of red, while his back hurt so much that his spine felt like it had been snapped in half.

'Isn't...there anything I can do?' He asked himself. 'Is the only thing left to do is wait here until I bleed out?!"

His question was answered when the endless lake of water below him started receding, sinking lower and lower into the ground.. But it didn't appear to be going back out to sea. It looked like it was being sucked down a drain. Marco watched in confusion as the water level dropped until it ceased entirely, vanishing beneath the sand and leaving Marco stranded on top of the pillar.

"Okayyy, that happened…" Marco said, completely unaffected by this after everything that had just happened. He looked down at the ground to check the destruction the wave had wrought, elsepaite knowing that he would regret it later.

It wasn't pretty. The tsunami had wiped everything clean, the only traces of the boardwalk left being the pillars and some broken and waterlogged pieces of wood. Marco grimaced at the scene and kept scanning it. But it was all the same pattern. Same random pieces of wood, same giant dunes, same odd mounds of red sand-

Wait. _Red _sand?

Marco looked closer at the beach, focusing on what appeared to be a pile of crimson colored sand. It stuck out like a stain against the rest of the beach, disfigured as it was. But the longer he looked, the more clear it became as to what it _really _was. In a sudden realization of disgust and horror, he noticed that it wasn't sand at all, but just a giant pile of blood and body parts.

His eyes widened and his breathing became more erratic as it all came into focus. What was once some random beachgoer was now a scarlet splatter so mangled beyond recognition that it had taken him a minute to see it as such, and now that he had, he soon looked past it and saw more just like it. Dozens of them. All different in shape and size, and all just as unrecognizable as the next. Each one having been a person, but each one now was nothing more than a clean-up job for somebody in the future.

Marco felt the urge to vomit and covered his mouth, gagging at the sight. But he couldn't take his eyes off the sight. He started searching for Star among the piles, looking for something that might stand. Clothes, some strands of blond hair, but he found nothing. Most of them weren't even in one spot, spread across the beach like chalk on a chalkboard.

Just as Marco gave in and was about to vomit, the ground started shaking again, grains of sand falling off the pillar as Marco hung on to it for dear life.

"Oh my god, what now?!" He screamed in anger. "Some kind of aftershock? How much more of this will I have to-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the pillar sank down into the ground a few feet, small explosions of sand popping at its base as the bottom few feet withdrew from the surface. It then sank another foot deeper, and the piles of bodies soon disappeared as well, sinking into the beach and vanishing from sight, exactly like the water had done just a few minutes ago.

Seeing what was about to happen, Marco ignored the pain as best he could and scrambled to his feet, getting on top of the pillar. Everything around him started sinking lower and lower into the ground, the pillar now only a few feet away.

Before he could do anything but panic internally, the pillar was completely buried under the beach by some unknown force, and Marco felt himself land on top of it, both of his feet sinking into the earth. He was suddenly yanked down another foot by whatever had claimed everything else, and was buried up to his knees.

"Nononono!" He yelled, his fingers tearing into the ground as he tried to pull himself out. But it was no use. Another hard jerk against his legs caused the beach to swallow him up to his stomach, and after that the sudden tugs against him stopped, replaced by a slow sinking process moving at one inch a second, with Marco unable to do anything about it.

Thirty seconds of frantic struggling later, only the top of his arms, neck, and his head remained. He soon felt the sand around him pour into his mouth and nose and cut off his breathing, and he tried to scream one last time as his head went under. His arms, the only part of him that remaining, uselessly flailed around before they too were consumed by the sand a moment later, victims of an unseen power.

Underneath the beach, Marco couldn't see or hear anything. The only thing he could compare it too was being trapped in the tidal wave less than a half hour ago, as he still felt everything around him as the hard sand rubbed against his skin and slowly flayed every inch of his body. But only a few seconds before all of his skin was torn off by his surroundings, his feet finally touched something solid, and everything except the pain ceased entirely.

Like it was never there to begin with, the environment vanished into thin air, and Marco, finally able to breath _again_, gasped and fell to his knees. He lifted his body up and looked into the surrounding darkness.

"Okay." He said, his fear now replaced with rage as he stopped caring about what would happen to him. "Okay. What's next, huh?! Whoever's doing this to me, come out and show yourself already! Stop torturing me with your tsunamis and all-consuming beaches! I just wanted to have one beach day with Star! Is that really too much too ask?!"

"Yes." A voice rang out from the darkness. Marco swiveled his head around towards the source, where he saw a familiar shadow standing there. "Oh come on." Marco said in exasperation, almost too tired to care at this point. "You're here now?"

Bren, the current bane of Marco's existence, stepped out of the darkness and snapped his fingers, and the entire area was illuminated in light. Marco instinctively shielded his eyes from the sudden change in brightness, and narrowed them as he tried to see where he was.

He was in the middle of a vast arena. A huge circle in the ground surrounded by gigantic walls, with crowds of...things, as they could only be described, standing behind the walls. They closely resembled the statues of the unknown deity Bren had at the fire sanctuary, only brought to life and all of them setting their eyes on Marco, glowing a brilliant white.

"Wha-what is this?" Marco asked Bren. "What's going on? Where's Star?"

"This is retribution." Bren said calmly. "For your crimes against the multiverse. Everything that just happened, the surfer turning into sludge, the earthquake, the tsunami, the beach swallowing you and bringing you here to us, it was all so we could torture you a bit before the final judgment. It was the cherry on top. The masterstroke to our plan. And now, it's time you, Marco Ubaldo Diaz of dimension Earth-473HRS, get what you deserve."

Marco didn't even know what to say. Everything was happening so fast, he was still in so much pain that his nerve endings were screaming at his brain, and to top it all off, he still had no idea if Star was dead or not. Or worse, if she was alive and thought _he _was dead.

"My friends…" Bren continued, now turning to the crowd of statues. "Marco is here for the crime of assisting in the destruction of magic, and therefore the destruction of the Planes of Fire by the hand of the void. Marco, how do you plead to these charges? Guilty, or not guilty?"

Marco paused and looked at the hundreds of eyes now staring back at him, all burning with a fiery hatred.

"Uh...not guilty?"

Bren burst out laughing, followed by everyone in the room, and Marco's heart dropped. "Not guilty he says! Well, I guess we'll see how the jury reacts to this. My friends, have you made your decision? Is Marco guilty of the crime, or will he be set free?"

Every voice in the room spoke simultaneously, echoing off the walls. "GUILTY."

"Then we are in agreement!" Bren said happily. "Marco is guilty and will be punished according to our laws."

"Hold on." Marco said in some attempt at stopping the events unfolding before him. "This whole trial of yours was rigged from the start! If you tortured me with the tsunami and the earthquake before this, then you already knew I was guilty of...whatever you're talking about. What kind of-"

"Marco, of course we already knew you were guilty." Bren said, shaking his head. "Everybody who's brought here is already known to be guilty. But this is our tradition. The tradition of the old ways of the fire god. But enough about that. Can't have you knowing too much." He looked back at the waiting eyes of the crowd. "Friends! The punishment! How will Marco be punished for this heinous crime?"

"Hang him!" Somebody yelled. "Hang him until his face turns purple and his tongue turns blue!"

"No!" Another yelled. "Drawn and quartered! Make it slow! Make him suffer!"

"Torture him to death!"

"Rip out his eyes!"

"Rub the rest of his skin off with oyster shells!"

"Burn him! Trial by fire!"

All of these voices called out from the darkness, while Marco's anger had been replaced with a familiar feeling of bottomless dread.

"May I suggest…" One of the statues said calmly, unlike the rest of it's brethren. "The rod."

This response was met with murmured whispers and several looks of surprise, and Marco couldn't tell if that was a good sign, or a bad one. Probably bad. Most things were.

His suspicions were proven correct when the loud yelling started up again, replaced by, "Yes!" And, "He's right! The rod is perfect for such a heinous crime!" Before long, the entire crowd was chanting the word "ROD", demanding the punishment.

"Alright, alright!" Bren said, putting his hands up. "Calm down my friends. Punishment by rod it is." This was met with several loud cheers and clapping noises as the crowd rejoiced that Bren has accepted their proposition.

"Now, does anyone have the rod?" He asked. "One of you must…"

"I do! I have the rod!" Somebody yelled, conveniently grabbing a long metal rod out of nowhere and throwing it over to Bren, who caught it without even looking. Marco backed away as he stared at it, trying to think of a way to escape. But he came up with none, and any scrap of hope he had left had been snatched away from him back on the beach.

Bren turned the rod around in his hands a few times, almost admiring it. But the rod was nothing special. Just a long, thin piece of metal with jagged ends. The only thing that made it stand out was that the ends were flaming red in color, as if someone had stuck them in a furnace. Bren touched one of the ends and then pulled his finger away, faking injury.

"Wow, that is burning hot." He said. "I'm sure you've guessed what's going to happen Marco. Punishment by rod is simple. I'm going to stab with this thing, and it will hurt. A lot. But don't worry _too _much. You won't die, no matter where I stab you. Heart, brain, doesn't matter. It's a way of making sure that you get what you deserve. The ultimate punishment for people such as yourself. So without any further ado…...let's get to it."

Bren then dashed towards Marco with superhuman speed, holding the rod behind him and preparing to strike. Marco backed away as far as he could, but Bren jumped in the air and practically glided towards him. He raised the rod high and slammed the burning end of it into Marco's left eyeball before he even had time to think, resulting in an explosion of pain greater than anything he had felt today.

Marco couldn't hold his voice in for even a second, and let a blood-curdling scream at the sudden sensation of the burning rod being twisted around in his head, his eyeball sizzling and popping as Bren pushed it in further and forced it out the back of his skull. Blood flowed out of the wound like a river and began bubbling and boiling at the intense heat.

A second later, Marco fell to his knees. The pain before was nothing compared to this. This was just pure agony, torment without end, and Bren grinned sadistically from ear to ear as he gave the rod one final shove and slammed it deep into the ground behind Marco, anchoring him in place.

"I…" Marco weakly cried out, still conscious and aware of everything. "Star…I..."

"Oh no." Bren said. "She's not here right now. But it is sweet that you're calling out for her. You really think that she's gonna save you? Or is this something else? Oh, I know what it is. Are you trying to tell her you love her? One last time? How cute. That's _so _sweet of you. But...it's over. The final judgment isn't mine to decide after all. It's his."

Bren backed away and a new figure came into Marco's view. He looked over with his one remaining eye and saw one of the statues approach and loom over him, a look of pity on its face. The crowd and Bren fell silent as the statue looked at him up and down, before loudly clearing its throat.

"Marco Diaz." It said. "By my judgment, your crime to the multiverse has been paid off by the suffering you just endured. From this point on, you will not die, at least not permanently, before Bren and every other problem you are going through has been taken care of. This I promise. But of course, this all depends on whether you can do it or not. And...one last thing. In time, a very short time, you will feel like your body doesn't belong to you. That another is using it. My only advice to you is to let it run its course. It will be much for pleasant for everyone involved. And now...wake."

It faded. It all faded to an endless black. The rod turned into nothing and vanished, and Marco fell on his back, staring at nothing and praying that he would just die already and be free from the pain.

And that prayer...after so long...was finally answered, in a way.

As it all faded, his eyes shot open again and before he even took a moment to register where he was, he got to his feet and screamed in a mixture of pain and shock.

"NO! STAR! BREN! ROD! EYE! WHERE...where…" He stopped screaming a second later, looking around and realizing that he was back on the boardwalk, with every pedestrian in a quarter mile now rubbernecking at him.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Star said, quickly getting up from the bench and approaching him. "Marco, are...you okay? What happened?"

He slowly turned and looked at her, trembling where he stood. "Star…" He said. He then looked at his body and saw that all his injuries were gone. His back didn't hurt. His eye didn't hurt. There weren't dozens of cuts etched into him or large patches of skin missing from where the sand had rubbed against it. He paused for a moment, realizing that he had simply woken up again, and then fell to his knees. He then started crying his eyes out, unsure whether it was out of joy from being free or if it was brought in by the trauma of everything he had just suffered.

"Marco?" Star asked, her own eyes beginning to tear up at the sight of Marco sobbing on the ground. Several people turned to watch the spectacle, but Star ran them off and then went back over to Marco.

"Hey…" She said. "It's okay. Did you have a bad dream or something? I...um...can you stand? Can we get to the bench?"

Marco nodded slowly and struggled to pick himself up, while Star grabbed his shoulder and helped him over to the bench. Once there, he started silently weeping while Star unsuccessfully tried to comfort him.

'How ironic.' She thought, wishing she knew what was going on. 'Just a while ago, _I _was the one crying uncontrollably, with Marco doing his best to help me through it. But now, less than half an hour later, it's literally the exact opposite. Like some kind of stupid cycle. Could beach day be _any _more ruined at this point?'

Her inner thoughts were soon answered when Marco finally stopped crying, his tear ducts empty and his bathing suit soaked from the river that had come out of his eyes. He wiped his face with his arm and turned to her.

"I'm so sorry." He said. "I just...I'm finally out. It was all just some sick nightmare. Just one after another. Just...oh my god. Oh my god, it wasn't fucking real." He buried his face in her shoulder, completely breaking down. Star jumped a little at this movement but then looked down at him and slowly rubbed his back, trying to calm him down.

But it did seem to work, at least a little. He let go of her a few minutes later and looked up at the sky, leaning back against the bench.

"Okay". Star said, unable to resist any longer. "I can tell that whatever you dreamt about, it was a horrible experience for you. But I want you to tell me so that I can help you through it. Like how I told you about my dream where Echo creek was on fire. Remember? Back at the diner? You helped with with that. So whatever this dream was that you had, tell me what happened so I can help you out."

"Please don't make me-"

"No." Star said. "I know it sounds mean, but I don't want to see you crying on the ground without knowing why. Because that's not you. You're not the type of person to do that for no reason. That's not the person I love. So tell me what's going on, and let me help you out."

Marco turned towards her, wishing that he could just sit on the bench in peace.

"Please." Star said with pleading eyes, tears starting to from in the edges of them. But despite seeing even this, Marco couldn't bring himself to tell her, and growled in frustration.

"ERGGG...I can't!" He yelled. "I don't want to tell you. Not because I think you don't deserve to know, but because I don't want to relive what I just went through! It was probably the most painful and horrendous experience of my entire life!"

Star paused, but then saw that she wouldn't be getting anywhere. As much as she wanted to, she decided to just let it go. For now. "Okay." She said. "Okay, I understand. But...Marco...I do want you to tell me eventually. That's the only way I can help you, and it's kind of our job as a couple to help each other."

"Maybe I will." Marco said. "But for now, Can we please go home. I need some time to think. By myself."

"Fine." Star said. "Let me just get my phone. I'm pretty sure I got it…"

Marco's entire body trembled as he got a sudden flashback of Star not having her phone, the same exact thing that had been the jumpstart of his entire nightmare. He decided that if he was still in the nightmare, then his mind, which was already as fragile as an eggshell after the things he just went through, might crack into pieces, and he would go stark raving mad out of anguish.

But thankfully, going insane was not on the schedule for today. Star smiled and whipped her phone out of her bag, holding it above her as if it were a trophy she had just won.

"Found it!" She said, while Marco breathed a huge sigh of relief. "I'll just call your mom, and then we'll just wait until she gets here. That good?"

Marco gave her a quick thumbs up and went back to sky gazing, seeing no shapes in the numerous clouds above. Just formless masses. Which is exactly how he felt at the moment. Star looked at Marco worriedly after what was almost a nonreaction, and then hurriedly called Angie.

Less than five seconds later, Angie answered with a cheerful, "Hello?"

"Hey." Star said. "Could you please come get us? I think we're both ready to go home. I'm tired out, and Marco is just…ready to go."

"Of course." Angie said. "I'll be there in a while. Just give me some time to get ready. Hopefully the drive there won't take too long." She said, sounding uncertain with her own words.

"Uh, is something wrong?" Star asked. "You sound really...doubtful. Everything at Echo creek is going okay, right? Nothing bad is happening?"

"For the most part." Angie said. "I'll...explain when I get there. Just sit tight." The line went dead, and Star stared at her phone in confusion and minor alarm.

"Oh Mewni, what happened now…" She wondered out loud. "I swear, if anything bad happened while we were gone, then I...I...I don't even know what I'll do. Nevermind that for now." She put her phone back in her bag and looked over at Marco, still staring into oblivion. "Marco, I just called your mom, and she'll be here in a little while. We'll be back home soon."

"Thank god." Marco said, the only part of him turning towards her being his eyes. "I need to clear my head. I just hope she doesn't take that long to get here, otherwise the thoughts in my head are gonna start making me want to kill myself."

"Uhh...okay." Star said, nothing short of disturbed by this. "But don't worry, it took us only half an hour to get here. Practically no time at all…"

**One hour and several complaints from Marco later…**

"Star, are you sure you called my mom?"

"Marco, I remember talking to her." Star said, legs crossed and letting her arms drape over the back of the bench. "I can actually show you the recording of the call if you want. Yes! Yes, I'm sure I called her. Now please stop asking that, that's like the tenth time! The answer isn't going to be any different."

"Seventh time actually."

"...Not even going to ask why you counted."

Star sighed in frustration and straightened up, rubbing her forehead with her hand while getting closer and closer to her breaking point. She had been sitting and waiting on the same damn bench for so long that everything below her waist was beginning to go numb, and she now loathed the bench with every ounce of her being, unsure as to why she was still bothering to sit on it.

Marco, on the other hand, was following a random pattern of sitting down, getting back up, pacing back and forth in an arbitrary way, and then sitting down again. All while frequently asking Star if she was sure that she had called his mom. After seeing the state that Marco had woken up in, sweating and panting like he just had his soul sucked out of him, she usually would have been more tolerant of his constant interrogation. But the sun was beating down on them, they were both still hungry and didn't have any money left, and to top it all off, they were constantly getting odd looks from passerbyers, no doubt confused by Marco's frantic pacing around the boardwalk.

But that wasn't even the weirdest part of what Marco had been doing. Before he had begun his whole sit/stand/pace ritual, he had been looking at the beach and scanning the horizon, wincing every time a wave hit the beach. Star even thought she had seen him jump back slightly when a particularly large wave came in, as if he was expecting it to go further and flood everything.

But as unnatural as this was, the thing that _really _caught Star's attention was when he stopped looking at the beach and rested his arms on the metal pole fence that stopped people from falling off the boardwalk. A second later, he slowly glanced down at it, and then lept away and stumbled backwards for a few seconds before slowly touching his left eye, as if to make sure that it was still there. Star didn't even know how to interpret that one. Was it the rust? The iron rods that made up the fence? Something else entirely?

She just couldn't understand any of it.

But back in the present, it had still been an hour, they were still waiting, and Marco was still pacing...sitting...pacing...infinity.

Star was about to give up on waiting for Angie to get there and start walking, but Marco stopped walking in circles and headed back towards the street, rounding a corner and disappearing from sight. Star blinked a few times, and then grabbed her bag and followed him, almost falling over from her legs still being asleep. She ran away from the boardwalk until she found Marco in front of a telephone pole, hitting his head against it at a leisurely pace. Star covered her eyes with her hand and then dragged it down her face, letting out an irritated moan. She couldn't take much more of this. She knew what she had to do to get him to stop. She ambled over towards Marco, her face looking like it had just woken up.

"Marco, what are you doing?"

"Banging my head against this pole until my brains spill out and I can end my miserable existence." Marco said, hardly even paying attention to her.

"Hm. Dramatic much?" Star asked, rolling her eyes. "Listen, you can do that if you want, but if my boyfriend's going to try and kill himself for a reason that I don't even know, then…" Star briefly hesitated, unsure if she should really push it that far, but she also knew that if this didn't bring him out of his zombie-like state, then nothing would. She made her choice.

"...then I'm going to break up with him." She continued.

Marco stopped and stared at her, his face now showing the slightest bit of emotion, one of visible worry and fear.

"You'd really do that?" He asked. "You'd really break up with me because of this? Because of this...phase I'm going through at the moment?"

"I wouldn't call this a phase, and yes, I might break up with you because of it." Star said. "Listen Marco, I get if you don't want to tell me something. Everybody has secrets. There are things about me that I haven't told you, simply because I don't want you to know. But if something happened to you in that dream, and it's affecting you _this _much, then you can either tell me and let me help you, or I'm going to leave, and you can go home by yourself when your mom gets here."

"Star…" Marco started. "You don't understand. What happened to me in that dream...no, in that _nightmare, _that nightmare that felt so much like real life, I was beaten. I was broken. Both physically and mentally. It was nothing but torture, and every second was pure hell. Even the worst of the worst of the things I went through in the Neverzone didn't compare to that."

"Then. What. Happened." Star said sternly. "I want to know, and I'm going to leave you here if you don't tell me. Because I'm not going to let myself see you like this. So either you're going to tell me everything, or I'm getting out of here, because at this point I'm seriously losing my patience. I don't care if this isn't like me, or if it's cruel to you, but I _need _to-"

"You really want to know?!" Marco yelled, now furious. "Okay, for starters, I had a burning metal rod shoved through my eye socket! I also had my skin nearly flayed off by sand, and before that I was practically bleeding out from hundreds of tiny cuts, and before _that _I nearly drowned in a tsunami! And before that, before any of that happened, I was caught in an earthquake and had the wind knocked out of me so bad that I could hardly walk. Oh! And I also nearly had my spine broken from being slammed into the boardwalk! And I felt every. Single. Excruciatingly painful bit of it. It was no dream. It was no nightmare. Whatever happened to me when I was asleep, it was all real."

Star took a few steps away from him, never having seen him so angry at her. "O-okay. That sounds pretty bad, but you're not hurt right now? You don't look like you're in any real pain."

"Oh, I'm in plenty of pain." Marco said. "Because I remember all of it. I can still _feel _all of it. My injuries may be gone, but the memories are still there, like having a bad taste in your mouth. You just can't get rid of it."

Star looked to the side and rubbed her arm. "I...I didn't mean to-"

"No." Marco said, putting a hand up and looked away from her. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. The last thing I want is for us to be apart. But after all your constant nagging, I couldn't control myself and I just snapped. I didn't mean too. But you weren't there. You don't know. You just…weren't there."

"I know..." Star said. "And I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have kept asking you about it. I just wanted to help you. Like you helped me when I couldn't take it anymore and ran behind that shop and started sobbing. I thought that beach day was ruined, just like almost every other good thing in my life has been ruined. But you got me through it, so I knew I had to help you get through whatever you were going through."

"I think I already ruined beach day though…" Marco said. "When we look back on this day, we're not going to smile. We're not going to be happy we did this. We-"

Star walked over to him and put a finger on his lips. "_Don't _think like that. Yes, beach day is practically over. But that doesn't mean we have to think of it as a disaster. We had fun. Remember us playing in the waves? Me chasing you around with a fish? Us eating nachos together and leaning against each other?"

Marco scratched the back of his head, with a small smile started to form on the edges of his mouth. "Yeah. That was fun doing all that with you. Kind of reminds me of the old days."

"Exactly." Star said. "So why worry? Why focus on what happened in the past? The only good thing the past is for is making sure we don't repeat the same mistakes. Everything else? Ah, we don't need it. We're still together. And I still love you. I'll always love you. No matter what."

"No matter what?" Marco asked.

Star's eyes looked to her right as she dubiously thought this over. "Well...maybe there's one or two things that would make me stop loving you. But I know you would never do them. So they're not important."

Marco's head dropped, and he let out a tiny, "Okay."

"Good." Star said. "All better now?"

"No. Absolutely not." Marco said. "I'm still thinking about that dream."

"Oh for the love of...can't you just-" Star said, before being stopped by Marco.

"But it's okay." Marco said. "Because I think I have an idea. One that popped into my head just now."

"An idea?" Star asked, her right eyebrow raised in curiosity. "What kind of idea?"

"I'll tell you later." Marco said. "Maybe on the car ride home, or maybe when we get home. I have to think it over all the way. But I can tell you that it might be the solution to all our problems."

"That sounds promising." Star said. "But this time, I want you to-"

She was interrupted by a loud buzzing noise, and both of them glanced down at Star's bag, the source of the noise. Star granger her bag and rummaged around in it for a minute before pulling out her phone.

"Huh." She said. "Couldn't have come at a better time. Your moms here. Sent me a text message, and she's waiting for us in the exact spot where she dropped us off."

"She's here?" Marco asked. "Right now?"

"Yeah, we can finally leav-"

Before Star could finish her sentence, Marco turned around and started to sprint for the car, seeming to know exactly where he was going. Star granger her bag and ran after him as fast as she could, and eventually caught up and grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait!" She yelled. "We need to discuss one more thing."

"Can we discuss it in the car?" Marco asked, eager to leave this whole beach incident behind him.

"No." Star said. "Listen, I don't think we should tell your mom about any bad stuff that happened while we were here. Nothing about the sand sculpture looking like the magic sanctuary, about crying behind that shop, about your crying because of that nightmare, or about the conversation she just had. I don't want her to get freaked out."

"That...is a very good idea." Marco said. "Okay. Agreed. We keep quiet about it. Don't tell her about any of the bad stuff."

They both nodded at each other and then resumed their mad dash back to the car, swerving around pedestrians and street poles. A minute and several close calls later, they had the car in their sights and slowed down as to not make Angie suspicious. They both calmly strolled over and opened the back seat, putting their bags on the floor before piling it and putting their seatbelts on. As they let themselves sink into their seats, Angie turned around and gave them the friendliest smile either of them had ever seen, almost looking like she was trying to hard.

"Hey you two." She said, putting on a rather pleasant tone. "Did you have fun at your beach day? You both look pretty worn out…"

Star and Marco quickly exchanged glances, resulting in both of them having a thousand yard stare, and then simultaneously responded with an unconvincing, "Yes."

"Aw, that's good." Angie said, bringing her focus back to the car. "Tell you what, let me get us on our way back home, and then you guys can tell about all the things you did."

If Angie had turned around in that exact moment, then the look on Star and Marco's faces would have made her realize they wanted to do anything _but _that. But alas, the two teens had agreed to not tell her about how beach day was nothing short of a few hours of straight torture, so a few white lies would have to do instead.

Angie started the car and then turned it around, getting them back on the main road and back to Echo creek/Earthni. But no more than a minute later, they were stopped by what could only be described as a ludicrous amount of traffic, a combination of people trying to get to the beach as well as leaving it. The "leaving" side of the highway was a little better, but only by the slimmest of margins and Angie, seeing that they were now trapped, decided that it would be a good time to start her querying.

"So you two…" She said, still having a rather cheerful demeanor. "What did you do? Go in the boardwalk? Play in the waves? Make sand castles?"

"Yes, yes, and yes." Star said, putting on her best happy face. "The first thing we did was set up our towels, and then we played in the waves a bit, and, um, I tried to make Marco eat a fish."

Angie chuckled a bit at this. "Let me guess, he made a bet with you he never thought would actually happen? He had a tendency to do that when he was younger. Made for some entertaining family dinners. But...you didn't really make him eat it, did you?"

"No." Star said. "He tried to convince me that he was joking, so eventually I stopped chasing him around with it. But I knew you weren't joking at the time Marco, it's just that I also knew you would never take a real bite out of it." She let out a conspicuously fake laugh, grabbing Marco's hand and squeezing it. Marco looked at her like she was mental, but Star gave him a glare they told him to go along with it.

"Oh yeah." He said. "That was really funny." He then let out an equally nervous laugh, and Angie raised an eyebrow and gave them both a strange look through the rear view mirror.

"Ok…" She said. "Then what happened?"

"Well, we got out of the water, laid on our towels for a bit, and...then I got the idea to make a sand castle! Or really a sand head, since I tried to make Marco's head out of sand, but then he ruined it by saying it looked nothing like him."

"To be fair, the only part that looked like me was the rock you put on it to make my mole." Marco said. "Other then that, way off."

"Oh you…" Star started, before stopping herself so it didn't escalate into a full-blown argument. "Nevermind. But yeah, after that, I went to go lay back on my towel, and Marco wandered off down the beach."

"And I saw a lot of cool things." He said. "Some cool rocks, some seashells, a dolphin, maybe even an albatross or two...all very cool stuff."

"Sounds like fun." Star said. "I just daydreamed for a while, which...wasn't fun. Looking back, I should have just gone on that beach walk with you."

"Errrr…" Marco stalled, remembering his previous screaming session at the sky, the Brainsaya returning but also being someone else and _actually _being helpful, then Star sobbing behind a restaurant like he did about twenty minutes later. "I...don't you think you would have enjoyed it. But anyways, after I got back, we went to the boardwalk and got some nachos for lunch, then we called you and waited until you got here."

"Nothing...else?" Angie asked.

"Nope!" Star said. "Absolutely nothing at all! It was a pretty good day."

"Well, that's good." Angie said. "But, now I'd like to know what parts you left out, and what parts you altered to sound better."

"Uhh...what are you talking about?" Star asked, still putting on a phony smile and the feeling of dread in her stomach returning.

"Star…" Angie sighed. "I know that you two left a lot of parts out. I knew it the second I hear Marco laughing. Marco, you're my son. I know what your laugh sounds like, when you find something actually funny. And that...was not it. What are you so nervous about?"

"N-nothing." Marco said anxiously. "I was just pretending to find Star's joke funny. Didn't want to...upset her."

"Oh you!" Star said, thinking fast and lightly punching his arm. "It's okay . He does this all the time. But one day, I'll get him to laugh for real, _right Marco?"_

"Yeah. Of course." He said. "But you're really need to work on it. I'm not even sure if it could be considered a joke."

"It was totally a joke…" Star said, making sure to play along with it.

Angie moved her fingers up and down on the steering wheel, before speaking with a skeptical tone. "Alright.

But if you two do have anything you want to tell me, it's okay. I'll understand no matter what it is."

"We know." Star said. "You don't have to worry about us. If there was a _real _problem that we thought we couldn't take care of, then we would tell you. But there's none of that here."

"Yup." Marco said, nodding along with her. "No problems. None at all."

"Hm. Then I'm glad." Angie said, despite knowing full well that they were still lying to her about everything. "I just don't want you two to worry too much about stuff. So much has happened lately…"

"That...reminds me." Star said. "When I called you on the phone earlier, you said that you'd explain something to us when you got here. So what's the big deal? Obviously, something held you up, you also said that, but was it the traffic, or something else."

"Something else…" Angie said. "It's Rafael."

"Dad?" Marco asked. "What happened? Is something wrong with him!? Is he oka-"

"I'm sure he's fine!" Angie said, trying to stop her sons frantic inquiring. "He's just not home yet. He said he'd come straight home and tell me what happened at Eclipsa's speech, but that was hours ago. So I'm starting to get a little worried."

"Did-did you call him?" Star asked. "Try and find out where he is?"

"I did, but he isn't answering his cell phone." Angie said. "But I'm not really worried about that, since he has a habit of forgetting to charge it the night before, so it likely just ran out of battery."

"I hope so. Marco, what do you thi-" She started to say, before stopping cold when she saw the look on Marco's face. He looked like he was frozen in shock, the only part of him being his left eye, which was slowly twitching as if his eggshell mind had finally been fractured.

But then he smiled.

And almost like a reflex, Star let out a silent gasp. Because she had seen that smile before. One she had seen many times before, only not on Marco. It was the same type of smile Janna had when she was planning to do something she wasn't supposed to. One of cunningness and trickery. A smile that looked like some kind of twisted copy of Marco's real smile. She was just about to say something when-

"Did you hear that Marco?" Angie asked, making Marco snap to attention, his smile vanishing and being replaced by a typical Marco frown. "You don't look like you're paying attention…"

"Hm? Oh yeah, sorry." Marco said. "I was just thinking of something. I'm sure dads fine though. Probably just got caught up in something important."

"True." Angie said. "But I'm still a little worried. If he's not home when we get back, then I'm going to start asking around...see if anyone's seen him."

"You...you do that." Star said, her eyes darting over at Marco, making sure that he no longer had the Janna smile. "Me and Marco...are just going to relax a bit."

"Actually…" Marco started. "There's something we need to do. I just thought of it, and I think that it's something that I- I mean, _we_ should do. Together."

"And what is it?" Star asked.

"I'll tell you when we get back home." Marco said. "It's...it's kind of private. But I can tell you it's been a long time coming."

"I see…" Star said, her mind filling up with possibilities of what he was talking about. Some of them were good, some of them made her cheeks start to turn red, and some of them she knew would never happen. At least not right now. But what if they did? Where would they go forward fro-

'Wait, why am I thinking about that?' She thought. 'Whatever Marco was talking about doesn't matter in the slightest. More important things to think about. What was that smile he had? That was easily the creepiest thing I've _ever _seen him-okay, that's not true. But definitely the creepiest thing I've seen him do all day. He looked like he was planning something. And what was up with his eye? It was twitching like he had gone insane! I just...I just...ugh. I can't. I just can't deal with any more bullshit right now. We're going to go home, whatever Marco was talking about is gonna happen...maybe...probably...hopefully? Depends. But after that, we're just going to lie back and do nothing for the rest of the day.'

As Star kept thinking to herself, the traffic starters to clear up, and they finally managed to get the car moving more than a few inches per minute. The landscape got more and more different as they silently made their way back to the town, with Angie listening to the radio, Marco sitting up straight with an expression of deep thought, and for once, Star was leaning against the car window instead of against Marco. She still wasn't sure if he was in his right mind. Not after the grinch-esque smile he had made.

But Star's focus on Marco eventually blanked out, and the car and everyone in it left the beach behind, with the surrounding landscape became more and more similar to Mewni as they got closer. But still none of them said a word. Nothing to be said perhaps? Or all of them knew that none of the others were in a mood to talk. But whatever the reason, the inside of the car was painted by a deathly silence, almost as if some great tragedy had just occurred.

And so the silence continued the rest of the way home.

Entering the city limits and the main town, Angie had to carefully swerve around the various lines of cones and police tape that crossed off ransoms pieces of rubble and foot-shaped potholes from when...well, that unfortunate incident doesn't need another mention. And nobody believed this more than the citizens. As Star looked out the window, she could see dozens of people working as hard as they could to clear the streets as well as making the most necessary repairs to the town. It seemed as if her speech had made everyone turn a new leaf.

But they left the main town in the dust and entered the neighborhoods, where damage was minimal. They all breathed a silent sigh of relief as Angie pulled into the driveway and stopped the car, and they all remained sitting for a few moments, happy to be back home.

Before Star could get out however, Marco leaned over to her and whispered in her ear.

"Your room." He said softly. "Wait for me, don't do anything else, don't tell my mom, just wait. There's something I need to tell you." He then unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door on his side, getting out and waiting for her.

'Oh my Mewni.' Star thought, a flurry of ideas flowing into her mind alongside a river of emotions. 'Is this _really _happening? Are we really going to…? I mean, I don't think I'm complaining, but this seems kind of random, and _really _sudden, especially after what he went through with that nightmare. I'm not going to say no, but something tells me that it wouldn't be wise to say yes. I guess I'll just...see how it goes.'

Star grabbed her bags and climbed out, slowly walking past Marco and towards the front door, before she realized she wouldn't be able to get in.

"Hey, Mrs. Diaz?" She said. "Can you unlock the do-"

"Here you go." Angie said, tossing the keys to Star. "You go inside and relax. I actually want to talk to Marco about something. In private, if it's not too much trouble."

"Uh, sure." Star said, unlocking the door and heading in. She took one last look at the two of them and then walked up the stairs to her room, carefully closing the door behind her.

Marco watched her leave, and then turned back to his mom. "So, what do you want to talk to me about?"

"Marco…" She said slowly. "I think your father should be the one to tell you this, but if you and Star want to do this right now, then I don't think it would be right for me to try and stop you."

Marco's eyes slowly darted from side to side and then back to Angie, unsure as to what she was getting at. "Um, what are you-"

"I heard your little conversation with Star when we were stuck in traffic." She said. "About how there was something private you two needed to do together, and just now I heard you tell her to go to her room and wait for you."

"How did you hear that?" Marco asked. "I was literally speaking as low as I could!"

Angie smiled. "A mother hears everything, especially the things you're trying to hide from her. But I just want you to know that if you and Star are...well, having fun together, then I ought to remind you that you should always use protection when doing that sort of thing so she doesn't get-"

Before she had even finished her sentence, Marco's cheeks had turned fire engine red out of embarrassment, and he put both his hands up in front of himself and start waving them wildly.

"NONONONO!" He yelled in a frenzy. "Not that! Not that! That's definitely not what I was talking about! I was talking to her about...something else. But not about _that_. Trust me, we're close, but I don't think we're there yet."

"Oh." Angie said. "Well then...nevermind? But what are you two doing then?"

"Like you heard, that's private." Marco said. "I don't think you would understand if I told you."

Angie laughed out loud, nearly doubling over in the process. "Marco, I didn't understand _half _of what was going on when Star was living with us and still had her magic. I'm not sure I do now. So if there's something happening between you and her, then the odds are I'm not going to understand it even if you tell me. Don't worry about it."

"Thanks mom." Marco said. "I'm glad that someone gets it. I don't think anyone else would if I told them."

"Of course." She said. "I get that all teenage boys have a few secrets, and it's usually best if the parents don't know those secrets, for everyone's sake. But seriously, about what I said earlier, if you and Star do decide to take your relationship further, don't forget what I said about-"

"Thanks mom! Gotta go! Bye!" Marco yelled, before rushing inside. Angie roller her eyes and then turned around and started walking towards the town.

"Well, time to find Rafael." She said to herself. "Worst case scenario, he's using a payphone to call that sad teen hotline again. Wouldn't even want to know what it would be about this time…"

**Meanwhile, in Star's room…**

"Hmmm...what to wear, what to wear? Light green dress? Nah, been wearing that one too much. That dark green dress that I never wore? Hm, there's gotta be a reason I never wore it. Better not take the risk. Ugh, isn't there anything I have that isn't boring?"

At the same time Angies awkward conversation with Marco was taking place, Star had gone up to her room and had taken her bathing suit off, then started desperately searching for something new to wear. Most of the current options disappointed her at the moment, and she stopped and stared at the closet.

"Although…" She wondered out loud. "If me and Marco are doing what I think we're doing, should I even get any more clothes on? Might make it easier...or simpler...or something. Jeez, why couldn't he have told me about this at an earlier date? I've never done this crap before…"

As she scratched at her lip and her head started to fill up with more and more lewd thoughts, she could see that she was getting ahead of herself, and quickly slapped both of her cheeks multiple times, trying to focus.

"No, don't do that." She said, before walking over to her mirror and staring at herself in it. "There a chance that Marco's not talking about that kind of stuff, and it would be really awkward if he just came into my room with me wearing nothing but my underwear and he wasn't in the mood for that. Get some clothes on. Doesn't matter what it is."

She strolled back over to her closet and there on her green dress and her pink and white-striped leggings, and then sat down on her bed to wait for Marco. Soon, she heard him coming up the stairs, and she swallowed hard and got up, but when he reached the top of the steps he went straight into the bathroom. Star tilted her head as she heard several loud clangs of metal, and then Marco left and came into her bedroom, and Star found herself dumbfounded at the sight before her.

Marco was standing there, wearing a fresh set of clothes, a crazed look in his eyes, holding a metal rod that looked like a towel rack he had grabbed from the bathroom. And he had that smile again. The Janna smile. The smile no human (or any other creature for that matter) other then Janna should be allowed to make.

"Uhhhh…" Star said while backing away from him in a panic.

"Get your shoes on." Marco said. "We're heading out. It's a good thing my mom decided to go look for my dad, or else we'd have to sneak out the window."

"Heading out?" Star asked. "Where are we going?

"The magic sanctuary." He said, not skipping a beat. "We're gonna go there, and Bren's gonna be there, and he's gonna have my dad, and then I'm going to kill him by shoving this in his eyeball." He held up the towel bar. "Any questions?"

Star's mouth hung slightly open as she processed everything he had said. Once done, she smacked her forehead with her hand, facepalming so hard that it left a visible red mark.

"Do I have any questions?" She said, utterly flabbergasted. "Yeah, I think I have a few. First question...are you completely insane? What in the hell makes you think _any _of that is a good idea?"

"Think about it." Marco said, taking a step closer to her. "Why would my dad go missing the same day we went to the beach? It's because Bren knew that we were going and he decided to act while we were gone!"

"That's not what I asked." Star said. "What makes you think you can just stroll in there and start making demands? Even if he does have your dad, which I sincerely doubt, then why would he just hand him over if you asked him too? What would you say? "Hello Bren. I know we hate each other and you want to kill us, but you appear to have kidnapped my dad. Would you be so kind as to unkidnap him?" How do you think that's gonna go Marco?"

"I'm not going to ask him _anything_." Marco said. "You're going to distract him, and then I'm going to use this rod to kill him, and then we're going to find my dad. Two for one. Bren dies, and my dad is out of his clutches."

"Again, that's a terrible idea." Star said, sitting back down on her bed. "Did you really forget that Bren has Tom as backup? He'd just have him kill us if we tried anything. All it would take is one well-placed fireball and poof, no more Marco. Just a little pile of ash, that rod sticking out of it like some kind of macabre gravestone. No, I'm not going to do that. You're not going to do that. If you try, then I'm going to stop you, and I don't care how I do it. I'm not going to let you throw your life away."

"Doesn't matter." Marco said. "I-"

"Wait." Star said, recalling an earlier conversation between Marco and her. "Is this what you were talking about back at that pole? The "solution to all our problems"? Is that what this is?"

"Partially…" Marco said. "In that moment, I realized that if I could just kill Bren, then our problems would be over. But I hadn't decided whether I should really do it or not. But when I heard my dad went missing, I realized that he had probably kidnapped him, so I had yet _another _reason to kill him, and then my mind was set. I have to do this Star."

"No, you don't!" Star said. "Yes, Bren has to die. Or at least we have to stop him. And also yes, if your dad is _actually _in danger and not just walking around town, then we should save him. But you're not thinking this through. Marco, if you try to kill Bren, then you. Will. Die."

"Then that's the way it's gonna be." Marco said. "Because like I said in the car, this has been a long time coming, and we're doing it together. When I told you that back on the highway, what did you think I was talking about?"

"What did I think? What did I think?! I thought you were talking about having sex!" Star yelled, jumping up and casually yanking the bar away from him. "Not going on some kind of suicide mission! I'm not doing this with you!"

Marco looked to the side and turned away from Star, before walking towards her window. "Yeah, my mom thought that's what I was talking about too. But trust me, this is more important. We shouldn't do any of that stuff. Hell, even stuff like going on dates should be postponed until we stop that little shit. So fine. If you don't want to help me, then I'll do it myself."

Star growled and slightly bent the bar in her hands, her arm muscles straining. "You…" She started. "This...this is not like you. What has been going on lately? First that dream, then the car ride home with that weird smile, and now you're suggesting we don't even hang out anymore? What in the fuck is wrong with you?! It's like you're switching from one mindset to another in the blink of an eye! And it all started with that dream you had! At this point, I don't care what happened to you in there Marco. But I will _not _let it control you this much. Maybe I'll go talk to Janna. Maybe she has a demon ritual for erasing memories. Because at this point, I don't know what else to do. It's only been a few hours, but it's already tearing us apart by the seams. And if _one more_ seam snaps, then I might snap as well."

Marco didn't say anything to this at first. He moved closer it then window and looked out at the town, surveying all of it.

"You really want to know what's been going on with me lately?" He asked her. "I don't know. There. I said it. I don't know. Ever since I had that nightmare, these thoughts have just been popping into my head. I don't know why, but I can't control them. It's like they're coming from someone else. Like someone is putting them there."

"And that means what?" Star asked, her grip on the bar loosening.

Marco visibly winced at the question, and then looked back to her. "It means that wherever I'm getting these ideas...I don't think they're coming from my own head. I think they're coming from somebody else."

"That's impossible." Star said. "Magic is gone. Spells are gone. The entire damn dimension disintegrated or something. There's no magic except...except...oh. There is magic. Those demon rituals. Forgot about that."

"See?" Marco asked. "What if it's a demon ritual?" He asked her. "Sure, we don't know much about that stuff, but Bren could be doing that! He could have forced Tom to teach him."

"Why would be do that?" Star asked. "Why would he want you to try and kill him?"

"Did _you _forget?" Marco asked. "The first time we met Bren, he told us that he wanted us to try and stop him anyway we could. If he wants that, then it would make perfect sense for him to tell me to kill him."

"If that's true, then we're doing exactly what he wants." Star said. "But either way, it's the same deal. Going to the magic sanctuary is a horrible idea, whether Bren has your father or not, whether he's putting crazy thoughts in your head or not, or whether he's doing none of that in the first place!"

Marco started shaking in anger and his fists clenched up. "I don't care." He said. "I'm going, and if you're not going to help me, then I-"

"See, you're doing it again!" Star yelled. "Acting like someone you're not! What was that? Did you just have another thought put into your mind? This isn't the Marco I love! It's not going to _be _the Marco I love."

"But don't you see?!" Marco shrieked in rage. "We are never going to be happy unless he dies! He's everywhere! At the beach, in our personal lives, and in my nightmares! He is ruining every single thing we worked so hard to accomplish!"

"I know." Star sighed, not letting herself back anymore away from him. "He's ruining our lives. But you can't just go and try to fight him! You don't know what he's capable of!"

"And you do?!"

"No!" Star shouted. "I don't either! But _that's _what scares me! All the enemies we fought in the past, I knew something about them, I knew what they wanted. Ludo wanted my wand, Toffee wanted the destruction of the wand, Meteora wanted to take over the kingdom, and Mina wanted to get rid of all the monsters! And even those enemies, people that we fought before and had time to prepare against, we almost lost to them. So, if you go in knowing basically nothing about Bren, guns blazing, what do you think will happen?"

"That's unimportant." Marco said. "And as for the other enemies, we still beat them. Ludo was a loser, Toffee didn't think of all the variables, Meteora just wasn't strong enough, and Mina made the mistake of becoming a turncoat. They all had flaws. And Bren's flaw is what you said earlier. He wants us to stop him. He wants a fight. So I'm going to do just that, and finally end this."

"But he's-"

"No." Marco said, as his gaze dropped to the floor. "Star...I love you. I love you more than anything. But there is not a single thing you can stay to stop me from doing this. From doing what's right."

"Nothing at all?" Star asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Nothing."

"Well then…" She started. "It's official. This really isn't you. This is not my Marco. Something happened to you in that nightmare, didn't it? You were infected or possessed by something, and that something is what was putting those thoughts into your head, and now you've given in to it entirely."

"What are you talking about?" Marco growled. "It's me. It's always been me. Don't jump to conclusions so fas-"

"Cut the crap!" Star yelled. "Is there more than one mind in that body? Who else is in there with you? Who am I _really _speaking too right now?"

"Me! Marco!" He yelled, taking an angry step forward. "There is nobody in here with me, everything I'm doing is of my own free will."

"You're wrong." Star said. "The Marco I know would never think to do such an idiotic plan! He would never throw himself in danger so recklessly! He would never do _this!"_

"Then you don't know me as well as you thought you did."

Star gulped and tightened her grip on the towel bar. "So you're still going to the magic sanctuary?"

Marco nodded, his unblinking eyes focused on nothing else but the bar that Star had so nonchalantly plucked away from him, like a predator with its eyes set on a kill.

"And there's nothing I can do to stop you? Nothing to say?"

"We already established that." Marco said. "Nil. Nowt. Nada! Not a single thing!"

Star glowered and raised the towel bar, turning it around a few times in her hand before holding it up like a club. "That's not going to happen." She said. "You're not going anywhere."

Marco scoffed. "Are you really going to fight me?"

"Yeah, I am." Star said. "It's not really you after all. You're not Marco. You're just something that's taken control of him. And if I have to beat you out of him, then that's the way it's gonna be."

"Oh. My. God!" Marco said, the irritation in his voice kicking up to eleven. "How can you be so sure that I'm not Mar-"

"You scoffed."

"Huh?"

"When I held up this bar and got ready to fight you, you scoffed. Marco would not do that. He would ask me what I was doing, or he would look panicked. He wouldn't scoff at me. So once again, for maybe...what, the third time? That's confirms it. See, I don't know who you are. I don't know if you're Bren, or if you're working with or against him, but I'm not going to let our relationship be torn to pieces by you."

"Marco" stood silently, his arms tediously dropping to his sides as a bored expression flashed across his face. Star saw that whatever was controlling him was done hiding.

"So…" Star started. "GIVE ME BACK MY BOYFRIEND!"

She charged. Bar raised in the air, ready to aim for the _exact _spot that she knew would knock "Marco" out instantly. But as she got only a few feet away, "Marco" blinked, and when he opened his eyes, Star almost froze in place, because those eyes were not the ones she knew.

The brown, beautiful eyes that she had come to know and love had been replaced by two soulless pits, his irises now a blazing orange in color, staring into her very soul. Her own eyes opened wide as she realized where she had seen those eyes before.

They were Bren's.

Yes, they were a perfect match. The color, the deep, dead look in them, even his pupils looked like they had changed. But as much as her brain told her to stop, she couldn't if she wanted to know. She was on a mission, and that mission was to save the love of her life from himself. And whatever was turning his eyes all Breny.

The distance between reached no less than a meter, and she swung the bar down, pointing it at the direct center of his cranium. Star knew that if she did it right it wouldn't kill him, but it would knock him out for the better part of the day. Plenty of time to bring him to Janna and have her figure out if it was a demon ritual making him go crazy, or something even worse. Probably worse.

But "Marco" has other plans. He casually grabbed the bar when it was an inch from his skull, ripping it out of her grasp so fast that it scratched her hand bloody. He then retaliated by punching her in the jaw, sending her flying to the ground and sliding several feet away from him.

On the floor, Star groaned and painfully clutched her chin, making sure Marco hadn't broken anything. Her eyes darted towards him, where he simply stood, waiting for her. He looked at the bar and bent it back to its original position, before throwing it aside like a piece of garbage, seeming set on fighting her with his bare hands.

'Dammit.' She thought, lifting herself up off the ground. 'He's not holding back. That was one hell of a punch. It was strong. Too strong almost...and why isn't he clutching _his _hand in pain? Punching someone in the jaw usually hurts the puncher a lot more than the punchee! Why-'

"Make your move." "Marco" said, impatient. "This is growing tiresome, I've got someone to kill, and I'd rather it not be you."

"Funny way of showing it…" Star mumbled, readying herself to attack again. 'Think.' She thought. 'He seems to be a lot stronger than normal, he's not holding back, but he did say he'd rather not kill me. I have to use that. Hit him anyway I can. Alright. Get him to the ground. Those wrestling moves I saw on TV once, along with the ones my dad showed me. If I get behind him, I think I can take him down. Then chokehold...knock him out...and that should be it.'

Now having a plan she was certain would work, Star rushed around Marco, watching him as close as she could, preparing herself for any attacks.

But what happened next could be described in many different ways.

One-sided. Unfair. Savage. Cruel. Barbaric. Star rushed at Marco, but he was ready for her, and he stepsided, grabbed her by the neck, and landed blow after unrelenting blow upon her body, each one making a bruise the size of his fist, each one scarring her mind as her soulmate beat her to the ground.

Every time she managed to land a pitiful hit on him, he hit back twice as hard. Her Johansen strength was of no use in this fight, as Marco was fueled by something much more powerful and ancient, the power of whatever creature had invaded his mind, the true enemy of this fight.

It finally reached its peak when Marco threw her against the wall and she fell to the floor, hacking and coughing up blood on her knees.

'Don't stop.' Her mind barked at her, futile as it was. 'Get up. GET THE FUCK UP! You have to stop him. He's not going to listen. You have too-OH MY GOD!'

Stars mouth hung open in horror as she saw Marco literally pick her bed off the ground, lifting it as if it was a plastic tub toy. He shook the blanket and mattress off of it, then slowly approached her and prepared to crush her with the beds metal frame, raising it high above his head.

Now seeing nothing but the end approaching, Star looked back to the floor and shut her eyes as tight as she could, unable to watch "Marco" kill her and knowing that pleading with him would be fruitless.

And "Marco" did nothing but smirk in amusement, any semblance of his former personality forgotten and replaced by a compassionless monstrosity.

Which only lasted as long as it needed to.

A hairbreadth away from finishing Star off with the bed frame, "Marco" realized what he was about to do and came somewhat to his senses, his eyes fading back to their usually brown and his inhuman strength wholly dissipating. He dropped the frame and loomed over Star, his mind overflowing with dozens of conflicting emotions as what he just did came back to him.

"I...I…" He started, but before he could say anything more, the voices in his head came back at full force, whispering poison in his ear, and he once again found himself unable to do anything but obey their commands.

He straightened himself up and took on a deadpan expression, before walking over to the towel bar and concealed it by stuffing it in the back of his shirt. He then looked at Star like she wasn't really there, before exiting the room and leaving the house, his sole destination being one of two things on his mind, alongside a bottomless desire for revenge.

Star watched all this happen, unable to prevent it anymore, and then crawled over to her bedroom wall and leaned against it as she fought to keep herself from falling unconscious. But the trauma of everything she had came at her all at once, and she fainted and slumped to the floor, the last thought echoing in her mind being some kind of Mewnian orison, pleading that Marco would come back to her and stop what he was doing.

But nobody answered, and there was nobody listening.

There never was.

**End chapter 14**

**A/N: Wow, what an uplifting chapter. Just like Marco's personality, switching from one horrible thing to another just like that! Ten pages of Marco getting tortured, (I counted) then him and Star having another argument, the car ride home being a lying session, possible sex scene that turned out to be a fluke, (just so you know, if I ever do something like that, which I honestly might one day, then it's gonna be much more sudden then what we saw) and then Star and "Marco" fought, and "Marco" almost killed her. **

**And now he's off on a suicide mission. I think we have another fight incoming, and it's not going to be in "Marco's" favor.**

**Oh, and he's not possessed. Not fully. Just being influenced, and unable to resist the sway of power. But I should let the future chapters speak for themselves...**

**But gods, I went back and forth with what I should put in this chapter. Hopefully I made the right decisions here.**

**Oh, and addressing the over two and a half week wait time, sorry for that. I hope to make two chapters per month from now on, or something along those lines.**

**Until next time.**


	15. Chapter 15: A Single Beating Heart

**Aflame **

**Chapter 15**

**A Single Beating Heart**

One foot in front of the other.

It was a simple as that.

Left. Right. Left. Right. Lef-LOOK OUT FOR THAT PEBBLE! Carefully step over it. Careful…there. Done. Keep going. But watch your step. Now, left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right.

This is pretty much what was going through Marco Diaz's head as he made his way through Echo creek, slowly heading towards the magic sanctuary. Even something as simple as walking in a straight line was forcing him to have an enormous amount of concentration, and it was plain to see that fearlessness was one of the many things he was lacking at the moment.

But the harder he tried to make himself blend in, the more he stood out. What with his casting side glances at everybody that passed by him, his suspiciously straightened posture, and his heedful manner of walking, it would be an understatement to say that he was being conspicuous. His personal suspicion towards everyone else was exclusive to no one. As of this moment, everyone was an enemy. No one could be trusted. He looked around again at the swarm of people crowding the sidewalk, sweat starting to drip from the side of his head as nervous thoughts clouded his mind.

What were they thinking? Did they know what he did? Were they silently judging him for it, or was this something else entirely? Who knew? Who didn't know? Did _any _of them know, and if so, then what could he-

'Stop it.' He thought to himself. 'You're overreacting. There is no way that any of these people could possibly know what you did. You were the only one there. Only Star knows. Only Star…'

Marco stopped where he was and stood silently, pedestrians detouring around him as his mind went back to Star, the love of his life, the person who he almost beaten to death no less than a half hour.

'Why...why did I do that?' He thought, his normal mind coming back to him. 'What came over me? I nearly killed her! I hardly even hesitated to beat her into a bloody pulp! It _felt _like I was doing that, but at the same time, it was just like some weird dream. Like some kind of hypnosis. Did Janna…? No. She wouldn't make me do that. Star's her friend. She _couldn't _have made me do that. I'm pretty sure she's still in the hospital. Unless she escaped...NO! What had gotten over you? First beating Star into the ground, now accusing Janna of doing something that had to be your own fault? What is happening to me? What is-'

'_Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…'_

Marco's thought process stopped dead at the sudden shushing, a voice that didn't come from his own mind, and he then he then found himself suddenly agreeing with it like a hypnotized chicken.

'Yes.' He thought. 'I should stop. I'll be quiet. I'm overthinking this. Nobody knows. Simple as that. Just gotta go to the magic sanctuary, wait for Bren or find some way to make him come to me, and then kill him. There. Done. After that, everything will go back to normal! Yeah? Yeah.'

Marco then continued his slow walk towards the sanctuary, no longer looking at everyone around him like they had a gun to his head. Like a video on loop, he played the scene in his head about how it would go down. Bren enters the sanctuary...he sees Marco and is confused...Marco tells him to talk to Star and points behind him...Bren turns and Marco whips out the towel bar...and before Bren can react, he throws it like a spear directly at Bren's left eye, almost certainly killing him...and then he finally finds and rescues his dad. It was going to be glorious. This was _his _moment. Marco's moment. Nothing could in his way! Nothing! Not even...even…

Once again, Marco's smile faded and he stopped where he was, before quickly ducking into a nearby shop. Pushing past startled several people, he flung open the bathroom door and locked it behind him, before running over to the sink and gagging a few times like he was going to throw up.

Once he had finally stopped retching, he looked at himself in the mirror and saw a face that didn't belong to him. The person he saw didn't have his eyes. Or his hair. Hell, they didn't even have the same color skin tone. He stumbled backward in shock at the sight, before turning the faucet on and splashing water on his face. He let it slowly drip off of him before wiping it with his hoodie sleeve and then fearfully looking back in the mirror.

Back to normal. He saw his own face, his _real_ face, and nothing more.

Marco breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the bathroom wall, letting himself slide down until he hit the floor. He simply sat there for a moment, wondering what all that had been.

'What...what is wrong with me?' He asked himself, the tone in his voice almost begging for an answer. 'First I attack Star, then I come up with that ridiculous plan. Distract Bren by telling him that Star's behind him? He would never fall for something so stupid! He's too smart for that. He's probably too smart for anything I come up with.'

Marco wiped the remaining water off his face with his hand and shook it off, dubious about attempting to continue with his plan. He wondered why he had come up with it in the first place. It was too simple...too obvious ...an imbecile could see through it. He carefully took the towel bar out of the back of his shirt and stared at it, before tossing it away with a loud clang, landing on the far side of the bathroom.

'And what's more.' He continued, his own self pity starting to get the better of him. 'I just realized what an absolute piece of shit I've been. If Star breaks up with me after this, I wouldn't blame her. That nightmare I had nearly tore us apart. And after what I just did to her...I think we're done. She'll never trust me again. Why? Why did I have to do that?! Why couldn't I have just kept my mouth shut?! Why did I have to tell her about that plan?! Why is any of this happening?! Why...why...somebody tell me. Somebody…please…'

He continued begging for answers and soon closed his eyes as he fell into a well of self-pity. He must have dozed off eventually, as it seemed like no time at all until he heard a loud knocking at the door, along with a, "Kid! Open up! The limit for public use of the lavatory is a half-hour! It's been twice that long!"

Marco tediously lifted his eyes in the direction of the door, a tired look in them that was easy to see. He grabbed the edge of the sink and forced himself up, before moving over to the other side of the room and picking up the towel bar, hiding it in the back of his shirt again.

He took one last look in the mirror. Same Marco. Nobody else.

'Okay.' He thought. 'That plan...that was a stupid plan. But I can't just give up on killing Bren. I've come so far. I have to do something to make up for what I just did. What can I do...I have to distract him. Ask him about my dad. If he has him, which I'm sure he's does, then it won't be as easy. I'll try to lure him in...get him a little closer to me...only strike when I _know _I can get him. But if he doesn't have my dad…' Marco rambled on. 'Then I still ask. Do the same thing. Lure him in. Don't let him leave. No matter what. I can't let him get away.'

Marco's head turned slightly to the side as he nodded along with his plan, foolishly believing that it was now foolproof. But just as he walked towards the bathroom door and was about to unlock it, he realized he had forgotten something. Something important. He took his hand off the knob and stood in front of the door, cursing his own stupidity.

'Shit. Tom.' He thought. 'What do I do about Tom? I mean, if I can kill Bren, then I don't have to do anything. But if Bren uses him as a shield, then I won't stand a chance. Just wish I knew what kind of leverage he has against Tom. My mom's theory was a good one, but I don't think that's it. There's no way Bren has Tom's parents. Not with Wraithmelior being the size of a house. It's something else.'

Growling, Marco narrowed his eyes and took hold of the handle again. 'Screw it. I'll figure it out when it comes to it. At this point, luck is the only thing I can count on. I want more time to plan this out, but time is just one of the things I have too few of.'

Marco then unlocked the door and side-stepped past the shop employee, who was glaring at him for taking his sweet time. He took notice of the rather long and angry line of people outside the door and quickened his pace, rushing out of the shop and back into the streets.

'Just keep walking…' He thought. 'Simple as that. Left. Right. Left. Right…'

**The Diazes house…**

Back at the Diazes house, or more specifically the Diazes driveway, Angie groggily made her way to the front door, having spent the last hour looking for Rafael. With absolutely no luck, as one would expect. Either this was serious and he was actually missing, or he was just participating in the worlds greatest game of hide and seek. Neither option made much sense, but she didn't have the energy to care at the moment. She just wanted to settle down and relax. This day was truly taking its toll on everyone.

Entering the house, she flung her shoes off and then headed up the stairs, fighting to keep her eyes open. Realizing that she wouldn't even make it to the bedroom without collapsing from exhaustion, she headed for the bathroom to splash some water on her face, maybe wake herself up a little.

She entered the bathroom, but didn't even make it past the doorway, stopping in her tracks at the sight of what remained of the towel rack lying on the floor, various chunks of plaster lying around it.

"What in…" She started, now fully awake, before her eyes darted over to a large hole in the bathroom wall. The slow realization that the towel rack had been ripped right out of the wall made her blink in confusion, and she took a deep breath and headed for Star's room.

"Star? Marco?" She called out, almost in a chiding manner. "Why on Earth is the towel rack ripped out of-"

Once again, her voice died in her throat as she laid eyes on the sight before her. But this one was a thousand times worse than a simple hole in a wall. Star's bedroom was an absolute mess, her bed leaning against the wall looking like it had been cracked in half, various bits of smashed furniture strewn about, and Star herself was lying on the floor, looking like she had been hit by a bus, a small trickle of blood coming out of her mouth.

"OH MY GOD!" She yelled, her cry of terror coming out almost reflexively. She ran over to Star and knelt

besides her, unsure of what to do. "S-Star?" She said, hoping that he was still alive. She slowly grabbed Star and shook her slightly, seeing if she would wake up.

After a few seconds of frantic shaking, Star slowly opened her eyes and groaned in pain, every part of her hurting. " ?" She whimpered weakly. "Is that you?"

"Yes." Angie said, relieved that she was still alive. "It's me. Thank god you're alright. But what happened to you?! Who did this to you?! Where's Marco?!"

"He...he…" Star attempted to say, before she violently started coughing and spat up a chunk of blood. Not liquid in any way, but a literal _chunk_ of blood, looking similar to a gigantic clot. After she finished her vicious hacking, she painfully pushed herself up and leaned her back against the wall.

"Marco...he…"

"No." Angie said, now understanding the severity of how bad a state Star was in. "Don't try to talk. We're getting you to the hospital _right now_."

Angie reached for Star to help her up, but Star raised her arm and pushed her hand away. "Hospital's not important!" She yelled, her voice sounding like the inside of her throat had been sunburned. "I have...to find Marco. Have to get to the magic sanctuary. Have to stop him from fighting Bren. Have to save him from himself."

"What are you talking about?" Angie asked, using all of her willpower to not just grab Star and drag her to the hospital. "What's going on?"

"I was trying to tell you…" Star said. "Marco...he attacked me, and then he left to go to the sanctuary."

"Wha-MARCO DID THIS TO YOU?" Angie screeched, her tone a mixture of pure anger and disbelief.

"NO!" Star yelled, immediately regretting saying it that way. "Well, sorta…but it wasn't him! While we were at the beach, he had some weird nightmare, and something latched on to him. I saw it in his eyes. Those weren't his eyes. He was being controlled. He didn't do this. He would never do this."

"Oh thank goodness." Angie said, letting out a sigh of relief. "For a second there I thought my son had lost his mind entirely."

"Well, if we don't stop him, then he's gonna turn out a lot worse!" Star said, painfully pulling herself up. "He's gone to fight Bren and find your husband, because he thinks Bren kidnapped him. Which, by the way, he totally didn't. And if things are gonna go how I think they will, then he has no chance. We have to stop him from doing something rash."

"Right. Right." Angie said. "You tell me where to find him, I'll take you to the hospital, and then I'll go to this sanctuary and-"

"You can't!" Star said, interrupting her. "He's not going to listen to you. He's not going to listen to anyone. But I know how we can stop him. We need Janna. She can use her hypnosis skills to knock him out. I just need to call Eclipsa, tell her to pick Janna up from the hospital. She'll understand. Then you can take me to the magic sanctuary, and we'll all meet up there. Hopefully Marco isn't a bloody stain by the time we get there."

"Does Eclipsa even have a car?" Angie asked. "There's no way you can guarantee you'll all get there at the same time!"

"Maybe not, but it's the best I can do." Star said. "Now help me walk. And don't take me to the hospital, I have to go with you guys. I might be the only one who can talk Marco out of it if Janna's hypnosis doesn't work."

Angie balked slightly upon hearing this, but decided that Star knew what she was doing and reluctantly put her arm under her right shoulder, and the two slowly walked out of the room, down the stairs, and over to Angie's car. Angie carefully set Star down in the passenger seat, and then ran over to the drivers side, before starting the car up.

"Dang it…" She fumed. "I'm almost out of gas. I should have fueled up the tank on our way back from the beach. We might not have enough to make it all the way there and back."

"That's okay." Star said, putting her seatbelt on. "We just need enough to get to the path that leads to the sanctuary. It's not that far. Now give me your phone, I need to call Eclipsa."

Angie pulled her phone out of her pocket without looking and handed it over to Star. Star dialed the monster temple and anxiously waited for someone to answer. Before it even started ringing though, Angie bit her lip and looked over at Star, preparing to speak.

"Where is the sanctuary again?" She asked. "That magic sanctuary you guys always told me about, right? Where is that?"

"The path that takes you there is right next to Britta's tacos. Just drive over there, and let me, Eclipsa, and Janna do the rest."

Angie looked rather perplexed at this answer, and slowly gripped the steering wheel. "Star…" She started. "Are you sure there's nothing else I can do?"

"You...can start the car and get us to the sanctuary?" Star said, still waiting for Eclipsa to answer.

"That's not what I meant." Angie sighed. "Star, Marco's my son. I don't want him to get hurt because of this. And if something happens to him because I wasn't there to help, then I'll never be able to forgive myself."

"I'm not sure you can do anything." Star said. "I'm not sure if any of us can at this point. Even if we get to Marco before he gets there, I don't think we'll be able to stop him. When we fought-well, I don't think it could even be considered a fight. He thrashed me around with basically zero effort. And when I actually managed to land a hit on him, his skin felt like iron. Like, actual iron that the swords and armor of the Mewnian knights are made out of. Which-"

"Star? Is that you?" A sudden voice called out, sounding suspiciously like Eclipsa. Both Star and Angie perked up and Star looked down at the phone, not even noticing that Eclipsa had answered.

Star put the phone to her ear and motioned towards Angie to start up the car, who nodded and turned the key, before backing the car out of the driveway and heading towards the town.

"Yeah, I'm here." Star said into the phone. "Listen, I don't know how much time we have, but there's something I need you to do. I need you to go to the town hospital and pick up Janna. Then-"

"Oh, Janna?" Eclipsa said. "She's actually right here next to me. I got her another leave from the hospital, and she's busy filling me in on some more knowledge about the Underworld and demons. It's quite fascinating."

Star heard some shifting sounds, and then Janna's voice came into focus. "Hey Star." She said. "Nice speech you did earlier. I heard about the whole from Eclipsa. Pretty impressive. Anyways, what's up?"

"Janna!" Star yelled. "I need you and Eclipsa to-"

"Jeez, you sound awful." Janna said. "What happened? It's sounds like someone chopped your head off and then sewed it back on. That or your throat got stuck in a wood chipper."

Star took a moment to process what that would look like, but shook it off and focused on what was important. "That's great Janna. But now I need you two to get to the magic sanctuary and-"

"The magic sanctuary?" Eclipsa asked, taking back the phone. "Why would we need to go back there?"

"I'm _getting _to that." Star growled, quickly losing her patience. "Both of you get into a carriage or car or whatever and go there to-"

"Oh! That reminds me!" Eclipsa said cheerfully. "Speaking of cars, I just got one. It's one of those smart car things, one with only two seats. The person at the dealership was rather reluctant to sell it to me, but I assured him I was fully capable of driving it. I've had a few lessons."

"Wait, when was this?" Janna asked. "When did you get a car?"

"A few days ago." Eclipsa said. "I would have told you and Star earlier, but with everything going on, I didn't have the time."

"Uh, you had plenty of time." Janna said. "In fact, you-"

"WILL BOTH OF YOU JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN?!" Star shouted, resulting in a sudden dead silence at the other end of the line while Angie slightly flinched away from Star, trying to keep her focus on the road.

"I…" Star started. "Sorry. I'm sorry. But just listen to me. Both of you get in Eclipsa's new car or whatever, go to the path that leads to the magic sanctuary, and wait for us there if we're not there already. Also, please ignore any traffic laws, because if you don't hurry then Marco could die. I'll explain everything there."

Silence on the other end of the line, and Star felt a twinge of fear that they might have hung up.

"Are you still there?" She asked,

"Yeah, we are." Eclipsa said. "I've just never heard you so angry at us before."

"I know." Star said. "But now can you-"

"Yup. Leaving." Eclipsa said, before the line went dead. Star handed the phone back to Angie, who slowly took it out of her hand and pocketed it.

"Are we really going to wait for those two?" She asked. "You did say we have to hurry."

"I hate it too, but we need them." Star said. "Or at least we need Janna. Without her, Marco would just tear us to pieces if we tried to stop him."

"How exactly can she hypnotize him again ?" Angie asked, swerving to avoid a parked car. "Come on, why does this thing only go up to eighty…"

"She does this thing." Star answered, ignoring Angie's complaint about the car's speed. "She snaps her fingers, says the word, "chickenbutt" and then Marco just passes out. I know it sounds weird, but it works. I've seen it before. Heck, I once did it myself."

"What it that doesn't work against him?"

Star thought about this for a moment and then nervously swallowed. "Then we'll have to take him down the normal way. Physically."

"Didn't you say that he had super-strength for some reason?" Angie asked, slightly clenching her teeth out of fear. "That he could tear us apart if he wanted to?"

"Yeah. But at that point, we don't have many other options left. We might be able to overwhelm him, but I doubt it. You and Eclipsa aren't really fighters when it comes to that stuff, Janna is still on crutches, and every part of me is so feels so bruised that even the smallest movement hurts. So you want me to be honest, then I don't think we could land a single hit on him. But it'll still be better than letting Bren kill him."

"Agreed…but one last thing." Angie said. "If we get there and Marco's in the middle of fighting Bren, then how do we separate them?"

"Same plan." Star said. "We get Janna to knock Marco out, and if that doesn't work, we'll have to take him down. As for Bren, I'll try and talk to him. Maybe get him to back off. That or we figure something else out."

"What do you plan on saying to him?" Angie asked.

"I have no idea." Star said. "So I'm reaaaaaly hoping it doesn't come to that."

"Okay, last _last _thing. What if Rafael's actually there?" Angie asked, remembering Star's mention of Marco going o the sanctuary to find Rafael.

"Like I said earlier, he won't be." Star said confidently. "Bren wouldn't do that. Not without a good reason. And there's no good reason I can think of as to why he would. At least...I hope."

"Me too Star, me too…" Angie said, pressing the gas pedal against the floor. At this rate, they wouldn't be able to stop if they needed to, but that didn't matter. They continued in silence, just like when they had come back from the beach, only this time one person short, and with that one person's life on the line.

**The Fire (formally magic) Sanctuary…**

There it was.

Right in front of him.

Just a few more steps, and he would be there. A quick walk over the stepping stones, a little push to open the door, and he would have made it. The whole process would take less than ten seconds. It was the easiest task in the world. That was all there was to say.

But to Marco, this felt like the most difficult thing he ever had to achieve.

'Why?' He thought, staring up at the sanctuary, no more than twenty feet away. 'Why can't I move? It's right there! This is it, right? This is what it's all been for! Why I had that dream, why I had that strength, and why...and why I fought Star. I have to. You can't get cold feet now. Something good has to come out of it.'

Marco narrowed his eyes and attempted to take a step forward, but the stepping stone almost acted like a reverse-magnet, and he felt his own mind fighting yelling at him to just turn back, while another part whispered to go forward. Then there was him. The third wheel in all of this. Completely subservient to whatever side he picked.

'Stop…' He pleaded. 'Can you please just stop. Both of you. I know I'm talking to myself, I know I must seem crazy, but can I please just have a second to think by myself?! To figure it out?!'

They didn't listen. In fact, they did quite the opposite, with the "turn back" side now screeching at him with full force, while the "go forward" side kept whispering, but much faster and and possibly angrier. He shuddered in place and begged the voices to stop, but they continued, ignoring his desperate pleas.

Realizing that the only way to silence them would be to accept one side, he clenched his eyes shut and ran forward, inexplicably screaming while doing so. He ran so fast he took the stepping stones three at a time, and almost slammed into the front door, before stopping again. As he felt his heart rate steadily increase due to his sudden burst of speed, he put both of his arms against the door and pressed his forehead against it. He listened. He listened to the voices.

But they had nothing to say, just as he had hoped. The shouting was gone, as was the whispering, and it was just him. He let his arms slide down the door as fall to his sides, and leaned his head back. He looked down at the handle and slowly grabbed it, feeling the cold metal in his hands. He took a deep breath and pushing it forward, the door responded in kind, creaking as it moved out of the way.

Marco entered the sanctuary, expecting trouble, and found none. He was the only one here, as Bren was nowhere in sight. He closed the door behind him, checking out the place for the second time. None of it had changed. The fires were still going, the otherworldly silence was present, and the statues…

The statues…

Marco almost took a step back as his eyes fell upon the numerous obsidian statues located around the sanctuary. Flashbacks came to him of the nightmare he had, the crowd of creatures all cheering for his torture. He knew it had to be important. There had to be something he missed. This statues might be the key. They were something important too.

But at the same time, he had to resist the urge to simple for over and push them to the ground. The amount of pure loathing for the obsidian carvings was more hate than anyone would think humanly possible. But he knew that if he toppled them over, then Bren would likely kill him on sight. Or kidnap and torture him. Neither of these options really appealed to Marco, so he kept his emotions in check and let out a simple growl every time he looked at one.

"Now what?" He asked himself. "Should I just wait? Does he have a camera in this place? Motion sensors? Something? Please?! I'd like him to get here before Star manages to call Eclipsa or the police or whoever to try and stop me! Is anyone here? Anyone at all?! Bren! Tom! Are you just going to go missing for no…...wait. Missing...missing...wasn't there somebody that was-oh shit, Dad!"

Marco's eyes widened as he suddenly remembered one of the main reasons he had come there in the first place. With everything else going on, Rafael's possible kidnapping has slipped his mind entirely.

"Dad!" He called out desperately, running around the room, checking every nook, every cranny, every hidden corner for any sign of his father. "Dad, are you here?! Where are you?! Where are you…?"

This pattern continued for a while, with Marco running around and calling out for Rafael, all the while checking and double checking every square inch of the sanctuary. But he found nothing. No sign that Rafael had ever been there. By the time Marco's voice died out, he realized that his father had never been there. There would have been signs. Clues. Something, even the smallest indication would have given it away. But there was nothing.

'You're kidding me…' Marco thought. 'He-he was never here at all?'

Realizing that he had come all this way for no good reason other than to murder somebody, Marco fell to his knees, the weight of his failure beating down on him. He grasped the sides of his head, feeling like he was losing his mind, but his eyes flashed orange for a moment, and what seemed like a perfectly rational thought came to his mind.

'No.' He thought, getting back up. 'Just because my dad wasn't here, that doesn't mean Bren doesn't have him. Of course he wouldn't put him here you idiot! Think about it! This is Bren's sanctuary! His church to that fire religion he mentioned! Why would he put my dad here, where he could accidentally break one of those _worthless _statues or mess up those bonfires?! He has him somewhere else! Yes, that must be it! And I'm not going to wait another second!'

Marco ran over to one of Bren statues, grabbing ahold of it and starting to rock it side to side, getting closer and closer to pushing it over.

"Bren!" He shouted. "I don't know if you're really here, I don't know if you're listening to me, but if don't get here in the next five seconds, or if I don't start hearing that obnoxious, pretentious voice of yours sometime soon, then I'm gonna push over this precious statue of yours and shatter it in a million pieces!"

The only answer Marco got to this was a sudden crackle and pop by one of the nearby bonfires, and Marco, now completely out of control, made a noise that could only be described as a full-throated snarl and tipped the statue further off its base.

"I mean it!" He yelled, now struggling to keep the statues weight up.

No answer. No noise, except from the flames.

"Alright." "Marco" growled, his eyes now a burning orange. "You asked for it you fire loving son of a bitch!" He then pushed the statue further, and it was just about to fall to the floor when-

"Okay! Okay!" A sudden voice rang out. "I'm here! Calm down you psycho!"

"Marco" turned to see Bren walk through the doorway, slightly out of breath and with Tom directly behind him, both of them looking greatly confused at the whole situation. He let go of the statue as his eyes faded back to their normal brown color, and slowly approached the pair.

"Yeesh." Bren said, glaring at Marco. "You better thank Jesus or Buddha or whatever god you worship that I made it here in time, and that I placed motion sensors in this place. If you had even _chipped _that statue, then you'd be good as dead, no questions ask-"

"Where's my dad?" Marco yelled at him, somehow remembering to stick to his plan. "What did you do to him?"

Bren paused and tilted his head at him, his face one of pure perplexion. "I did what now?"

Marco jerked his head back in shock and became so angry that he struggled to make words, making sure to be as convincing as possible. He just had to get close enough. All he had to do was keep up the act. "Wha-you-my dad! He's gone! And I know you have something to do with it! So where is he?"

Bren rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. "Is this a joke?" He asked. "What do you think I did?"

"Like I said. My. Dad. Is. Gone!" Marco repeated. "And I'm sure that you're behind his disappearance."

"Your dads missing?" Bren asked. "News to me…"

"Bullshit! You know exactly where he is, don't you?!" Marco yelled. "This has your fingerprints all over it! Probably both figuratively and literally."

"I didn't do it." Bren said. "If your dad's really gone, then I promise that I have nothing to do with it. This one isn't me. This time."

Marco growled. "Why you little-"

"Shut up."

"What?" Marco asked, his teeth clenched so hard that any more force would have shattered them.

"Shut up." Bren repeated. "You don't get to speak to me that way. The only reason I'm allowing you to continue to talk is because this whole thing you're doing is amusing. Seriously, why are you acting like someone you're not? Yelling at me without thinking about your words beforehand, the way you're looking at me right now, and most importantly, coming here alone. Like, where's Butterfly? Did you _really _come here by yourself?"

"I-yes." Marco said. "She's not here right now." He looked down at the ground, the memory of their one-sided fight once again coming back. "She's back at my house. It's just me. Just me and you. And Tom."

"I see…" Bren said. "So, what'd you do to her?"

"Huh? What are you talking abo-"

"Don't bullshit me Diaz." Bren said, giving him a knowing smile. "I can see it in your eyes. Well, more in the way you looked at the floor, but still, I can see it in your eyes. You did something to her, didn't you?"

"I...don't know what you're talking about."' Marco said, leaning his head back and crossing his arms.

"Did-did you seriously just _cross your arms?"_ Bren asked, half talking, half laughing. "The hell was that? Some attempt to look tough? Come on Diaz. Just tell me. Whatever you did for her, it can be worse than what I have planned."

"I didn't do anything!" Marco yelled. "Don't try to fool me with-"

"Tell me." Bren demanded, his smile fading in an instant, and his tone now turning more serious than Marco had ever seen him. "Or I will kill you. Right here. Right now. Or I'll make it interesting, and torture you first."

"..."

"So what's it gonna be? The truth, or death by torture?"

"We…" Marco started, tears forming in the edges of his eyes. "We had a fight."

"Oh, Is that all?" Bren asked, unimpressed. "Well, I suppose it's inevitable for couples, even sickenly happy ones, to fight eventually. Sucks. But-"

"Not like that." Marco said. "A _real _fight. With punches being thrown. An actual fistfight."

"WHAT?!" Tom exploded, shocked beyond belief. "WHAT THE HELL MAN?! WHY DID YOU TWO...fight...each...other. Oh."

Tom realized his mistake and stopped talking,

slowly glancing over at Bren, who was now glaring intensely at him, his odd black device in his hand and his finger hovering over it's button. They both stared each other down for a moment before Bren simple narrowed his eyes at Tom and shoved the device back in his pocket.

"I am going to allow that." He said. "Mostly because I'm just as shocked as you are. But _never _speak again, unless I say you can. Got it?"

Tom rubbed his arm and slowly nodded, terrified on the outside but thankful on the inside that Bren only gave him a warning.

"Good. Now then…" Bren said, turning his attention back towards Marco. "Who won?"

"Who won?" Marco asked, repeating Bren's question while wiping his eyes.

"Yeah. Who won." Bren said expectantly. "I mean, I have to guess that you won, considering you're now here, and I'm also going to guess that you being here is what you fought over. Right?"

"...Yeah." Marco said, biting the edge of his lip, each of Bren's words feeling like a punch to the face.

"She better not be dead." Bren said. "I'm saving that for myself. Aw, who am I kidding. If she were dead, you'd be there, mourning her death! But I am surprised you managed to beat her. I know you have some fancy Kung-fu moves-"

"Karate." Marco corrected, still looking down at the floor, drowning in his own self-loathing.

"Right. Karate. Whatever. As I was saying, I know you have some fancy _karate _moves, but still! Star is a Mewnian princess! Trained to be a warrior! Even without her magic, I'm sure she still packs one hell of a punch. So how _did _you do it?"

"You...you really think I'm going to tell you that?" Marco asked rhetorically.

"Hmmm...nope." Bren said. "That's fair. I can imagine that it must have been very hard for you. Beating up your soulmate like that. Takes a very specific type of person. A type of person I never thought I'd see. Especially not in you."

"I did what I had to." Marco asked, starting to regret everything again. "She's fine. She's okay. She'll live. I came here to-"

"She'll live?!" Bren shouted, a mixture of shock and possibly disgust. "Did you beat her to near death or something?! My god Diaz! What is wrong with you? And another thing, I don't see a single scratch anywhere on you! I'm having doubts whether you two actually fought, but on the other hand, I don't see any other way you could have come here alone. She would _never _have let you do that."

"You don't know that." Marco said. "You don't know her. If she really trusted me, then I'm sure she would have let me go. But a few things happened earlier, and that trust started to...wane. But like I just said, you don't know her. You don't know me."

"Oh, sure." Bren said sarcastically. "What could I possibly know? I only spent _six months _spying on you! I couldn't know anything. I don't know anything important about you." He looked at Marco with a face of pure disappointment.

"...How did you even do that?"

"Do what? Spy on you?" Bren asked. "Well, it's quite simple. You just gotta plant some cameras, a few hidden listening devices, maybe a-"

"Not that!" Marco yelled. "Six months. Only six months. That may seem like a long time, but for you to do all this in only six months…" He spread his arms out, gesturing towards at the sanctuary. "That's impossible. You're telling me you had time to make this place, spy on us, plan everything out, make friends with Mina, take control of Tom, and who knows what the hell else in only six months?!

"...Yes?"

Marco groaned and dragged his hand down his face. "How? I know you said you had help to build this place, but what about everything else?"

"Well, just that." Bren said, shrugging. "I got help. You really think I could do all of this alone? Ha! I would have been incapable. It would have been decades before I finished refurbishing the sanctuary into what it is now. Not to mention the plans, spying, and everything else you mentioned. One mustn't do things alone, as you well know."

"Then why is it every time I see you, you're only with Tom?" Marco asked. "Because I'm sure you have to have dozens, maybe _hundreds_, of people helping you, considering."

"That's an exaggeration." Bren said. "But why would I show up with anybody else? I only need Tom so I can intimidate weak people as well as kill you if you try and attack me. I don't need to show you anybody else, so why would I? Plus, most of them you don't even know, so it wouldn't make any difference."

"Fascinating." Marco said, starting to grow tired of all the sidetracking. "But now back to the main topic. What did you do with my dad?"

"Oh for fucks sake." Bren groaned, facepalming. "I didn't have anything to do with your dad disappearing! Even if I did, then I would have left a note or something describing how you should do this or he'll die by dawn. Blah blah blah, evil laugh, cliche villain kidnapping plan. I didn't do it. He probably just got caught up in something."

"He didn't." Marco said. "He went to Eclipsa's speech this morning, and said he would come back right after it, but it's been _hours_. Something had to have happened to him, and I immediately thought of you."

"I'm flattered." Bren said, looking ready to turn around and leave. "You immediately thought of me. Not that I blame you, but I do think that…...hold on a second. The speech? He went to Eclipsa's speech?"

"Yeah...why?" Marco asked.

"I-give me a second." Bren said, turning away from Marco and disappearing into his own head.

'Ugh...just give me an opening already.' Marco thought. 'I have to get him to come closer to me. I can't attack him right now, even if it looks like he's focusing on something else. There's no way he isn't still fully aware of everything around him. He's not that stupid. I just need the proper opening…'

Bren suddenly had a moment of realization, his head snapping up as he continued facing away from Marco. "Oh, that son of a bitch!" He yelled. "Of course he didn't listen to me. I told him that I would get my revenge, and _he _would get his! I told him to listen to me! But of course he had to go and take matters into his own hands. I should have known he wouldn't be patient!"

"Uh…who are you talking about?" Marco asked, genuinely curious.

"None of your business." Bren said. "Just...go home Diaz. I have to go take care of a problem."

"Wait, you can't just leave!" Marco yelled.

"Yes, I can." Bren said. "Who's gonna stop me? You? Don't make me laugh. I'm trying to help you anyways. Without me, you're probably never gonna see your dad again, _if _my suspicions are correct."

"But-"

"Doesn't matter, don't care." Bren said, heading towards the door. "Oh, and one last thing. Don't do this ever again. Don't just expect that you can waltz in here and summon me like this. I allowed you here for my purposes, not yours. If you try this again, then I'll _actually _kidnap your dad. And trust me, what I would do to him is a lot worse than what the other person has in store. Cheers."

Bren then head towards the door, with Tom looking at the ceiling and wishing he could be free of this whole situation. He turned heel and started to follow Bren, while Marco stayed where he was, fuming.

'Nonono!' He thought. 'You don't just get to leave! I have to do something! Anything! And...and...you know what, screw it!' He yelled at himself, his eyes once again changing hue. 'I'm going for it! Bren dies right fucking now!'

Not wasting a second, "Marco" reached into the back of his shirt and whipped out the towel bar, he tossed it slightly in the air and then caught it again, now holding it like a spear. In his peripheral vision, Bren caught the movement and turned slightly, but it was too late, as "Marco" leaned his arm back and then thrust it forward, launching the end of the bar at him like a missile.

Time almost seemed to stop as "Marco" saw that Bren wouldn't be able to react in time, and he realized that this was it. The end of all their problems. He had seen the bar, but it was already far too late for him to do anything about it.

But it wasn't for Tom.

Tom's face became one of pure panic as he spotted the bar flying towards Bren, and he reached his arm out grabbed it a second before it hit its mark, the end of the bar less than a centimeter from the back Bren's head. "Marco" gasped at this sudden move, looking at Tom like some kind of turncoat. He had failed. It hadn't worked. His eyes faded back to brown, and all his anger was replaced with a feeling of bottomless dread.

Bren slowly turned around completely, his eyes widening slightly at the bar, only a millisecond away from killing him. He glanced over at Marco, then at Tom, and then just like clockwork, a quick grin came over his face, seeing Marco's failed and wasted attempt at killing him.

Nobody moved, and only one person managed to find his voice.

"You…" Bren started, a mixture of anger, relief, and astonishment. Marco could tell that he was having trouble keeping his cool. "You almost got me. Just...wow. I didn't expect you to try that. You _would _have gotten me, if not for Tom. I can't say I'm not impressed."

"Yeah, about Tom…" Marco said calmly, before looking over at the demon boy and exploding. "TOM! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN HIM! I WOULD HAVE KILLED HIM! WHY DID YOU STOP IT?!"

Tom said nothing, his only respond to Marco's yelling being to look away from him in shame, unable to meet Marco's gaze.

"Oh Marco…" Bren said. "Stupid, naive Marco. Did you really think I hadn't thought that something like this would happen? I mean, that attack caught me off guard, but I suspected that you would try something like it _eventually_. Just because I'm dead, that doesn't mean the leverage I have on Tom is. Trust me, I thought of everything."

"..."

"Nothing left to say?" Bren asked. "I don't blame you. Or perhaps you're simply afraid. You have every right to be, of course. But before we get to the whole, "why your dumbass thought trying to assassinate me was a good idea," I have to ask, why the towel bar? Why not something like a knife?"

"That's personal." Marco said, trying to remain calm, despite how bad this was looking for him. "Let's just say I had a few bad dreams."

"Wait wait wait." Bren said, starting to do his "half laugh, half talk" thing again. "Did you have the judgment dream? And the crowd chose the rod as punishment? Oh, I know that had to hurt. When was this? Last night? Night before that? Even earlier?"

"Wha-how do you know about that dream?" Marco asked. "Were you actually there? I thought that was just a dream version of you that was being controlled by something, or someone else!"

"Oh no, I wasn't actually there." Bren answered. "That dream is a unique one. The person who administers whatever punishment the crowd chooses is the same person that's caused the most pain to you lately. So no surprise it should be me."

"But how did you-"

"There's much more at play that you don't know about." Bren said. "Stuff that doesn't involve me directly. That dream was one of them. The person that did that to you, they're on my side, but also on their own. Which is rare when it comes to working with me."

"I...I still don't understand."

"You're not meant to." Bren said. "It's simple as that Diaz. Just forget about that dream for now. Besides, I think we were in the middle of something. So, what the hell made you think that trying to kill me was a good idea?"

"I...you…" Marco stuttered, now terrified, knowing that Bren could just tell Tom to burn him at any time.

"It's okay." Bren said reassuringly. "You can tell me. I'm not going to hurt you...yet. Not here at least. You really think I'm going to risk damaging this place? I told you back when we first met here, remember?"

"I remember." Marco said. "I-I just saw an opportunity and took it. I wanted to use the towel bar for payback after that dream."

"Interesting." Bren said. "But tell me, did you come here for your dad, or were you just here to kill me? Which reason did you really do this all for?"

"Both." Marco pitifully responded. "But mostly the second one."

"Damn. That's cold." Bren said, shaking his head. "Ignoring your kidnapped father just so you could murder somebody. What was your big plan if you actually managed to kill me? Just hope that everything went back to normal?"

"What do you think?" Marco asked him. "Yes, that was it! And everything would have gone back to normal! You wouldn't be around to ruin our lives!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but killing me wouldn't have done anything." Bren said in a matter-of-fact tone. "In any case, it would have just made it worse. Even if I was dead, I've made sure to take enough countermeasures that my plan would still have come to fruition."

"So what you're saying is...it would have all been for nothing?" Marco asked, defeated.

"That's right!" Bren said cheerfully. "Congratulations, you're a failure either way! Feels bad, doesn't it?"

"..."

Marco's couldn't even say anything. Bren was probably going to kill him, and even if he managed to escape, then Star, Moon, his parents, and everyone else would never talk to him again. Now after what he did to Star. There was no point. He gave up and fell to his knees.

"If you're going to kill me, then just do it already." He said, staring down at the ground. "I failed to kill you, and I can't go back having accomplished nothing."

"Tch. Don't be like that." Bren said. "Diaz, I'm not going to execute you. That's not what I do. I want a fight. Like I said, I want you to try and stop me! I'm not going to get anything out of this. So, I have an offer for you. We can fight, just you and me, with Tom unable to interfere. If you win, then I leave Earthni, you get Tom back, and you never have to deal with me again! But if I win, then...well, you die. How bout it?"

Marco thought about this, and was about to say no, but then recalled something from one of their previous meetings. From _both _of their previous meetings. Something he had forgotten about entirely. Something he should have tried earlier. Something that he was positive could distract Bren long enough for him to land one good hit. Just one seven-word phrase, one thing that Marco knew would have an effect on him.

He had no choice. It was all or nothing now. He had to try, and now he had a new plan. He

"Okay." He said. "I agree to your terms or whatever. You and me. Right here, right now."

"Now hold on a second." Bren said. "If we are doing this, then we're going somewhere else for it. Don't want to risk damaging the sanctuary! And I also don't want to risk your friends coming here and interrupting our fight. Can't have that. Follow me outside, I know just the place where we can have our little showdown."

Bren then turned tail and walked out of the sanctuary, Tom, sensing a small opportunity, motioned for Marco to follow them before quickly mouthing "sorry. He has my parents," before following Bren as well. Marco's response to this was to get up and glare at him, but he was surprised to know that his mom's theory had been correct. It _was _his parents that Bren had. That was the leverage. Unfortunately, that only helped a small bit, as Marco had no idea if they were still in the Underworld, on Earthni, or somewhere else entirely.

But he didn't have the time to contemplate any of that. It was all or nothing now, and he to put everything on the table. He speed walked to catch up with Bren's and Tom and followed them outside, where they were both waiting for him. He approached the pair until he got about two meters away, upon which Bren held up a hand to signal him to stop, which Marco reluctantly did.

"Not too close." Bren said. "Don't want you to try and murder me again before the fight truly begins." He turned towards Tom. "Lucitor, melt that stupid thing down. Don't want it to cause any more trouble for me later."

Tom paused and then looked down at the towel bar he was holding, not even realizing he had been holding it the entire time. He slowly formed as his hands became engulfed in flames and the bar turned a bright shade of red, then orange, then yellow as the metal flipped over and fell apart, molten pieces of it dripping and burning the grass beneath them.

Marco flinched at this display, getting flashbacks of the burning bar in his nightmare, and Bren slamming it into his head. A single tear started to form in the corner of his left eye as he slowly remembered the terrible scene, but he shook his head a few times and brushed it off, not wanting to go any further. He was still left shuddering though, secretly terrified that the melting of that bar, nothing but a simple show of power, had had such a great effect on him.

"Where are we going?" He asked, wanting to focus his mind on something else. "Someplace special in mind?"

"You could say that, although it would be best to simply show you…" Bren replied, before looking over at Tom. "Lucitor. Take us to the edge."

"The wha-" Marco attempted to say, but before he could finish his words, Tom threw his arms up, and the three of them disappeared into a portal of fire, which vanished no more than second later, leaving nothing but a small patch of burnt grass.

And thus the days main event had begun…

**The beginning of the path…**

As Britta's Tacos came into Star's view, Angie made a hard right, almost throwing Star out of her seat. She continued down the road for a few seconds before slamming on the brakes, resulting in Star being lurched forward and her seatbelt almost bruising one her ribs.

"OW!" She yelled, unclipping the seatbelt and throwing it off. "I know we're in a hurry, but could you be a little more careful?! I'm already injured enough as it is!"

"Sorry, Sorry…" Angie said. "I'm just worried about Marco. Considering you did say he could literally _die _in if we don't get there in time. I think I have a bit of right to go fast. But speaking of being injured, how are you feeling? Do you think you can walk?"

"I can walk just fine." Star responded. "Even if it does hurt like hell. These wounds will heal, death doesn't. So I'm not concerned with myself at the moment."

"I suppose that's fair." Angie said, in looping her own seatbelt and turning the car off. "But we are taking you to a hospital after all this, no matter what. You still look like you got run over by a truck." Angie then shoved the car keys in her pocket and opened her door. "Now let's go to that sanctuary and-"

"Wait." Star said. "We have to wait for Eclipsa and Janna, remember? Without Janna, we won't be able to do anything."

"Oh...right." Angie said, so caught up with worrying about Marco that she had already forgotten about Janna and Eclipsa. "So all we can do is wait?" She asked. "Nothing else?"

"That's the gist of it." Star seethed, equally annoyed as Angie. "It all depends on them. I've probably said that like ten times already, but it's what we've got at the moment. Huh. Probably said _that _ten times as well."

"Might have, but I don't think that-" Angie started, before she was interrupted by an insane screeching noise, which sounded _exactly _like someone drifting a smart car about three hundred feet away from them. Both of them turn around and looked out the cars back window, where they saw Eclipsa's car rocket down the street towards the path, going even faster than Angie had been.

"Uh...they're not stopping!" Star yelled, stating the obvious. But it was true. They hadn't even slowed down since the pair had spotted them.

"Should we get out of-"

"Yup!"

Both Star and Angie got out of the car as fast as they could, Star almost crying out in pain at the sudden movement. They both got as far away from the path of the car as they could, just as it shot past them and finally stopped, the tires squealing against the road. It came to a complete stop directly in front of the path, with everybody at the taco stand watching in shock, every person left wondering how it didn't hit anything. The doors to the car were practically kicked open, and Eclipsa and Janna slowly got out and wobbled around, dizzy and looking like they were about it to throw up.

"Eclipsa!" Janna yelled, struggling to keep her crutches up and ignoring Star and Angie entirely. "What was that? You said you got driving lessons! You said you were good for this! We nearly ran over two dozen people! Seriously, I counted! What was that?"

Eclipsa slowly gazed at Janna, almost entirely unaffected by her rare outburst of anger. "I thought it would be easier. But I didn't know it would be so hard to control the car when it was going that fast. Nobody told me that." She responded. "It didn't help with you yelling at me the entire way here."

"Well, sorry, but I'd rather not die just yet." Janna said. "Plus, Star said Marco is going to die if we didn't get here, and I wasn't about to let you crash. And speaking of which, where is-"

"Guys!" Star yelled, running over to them, before almost kneeling over in pain and settling on a light jog. "You made it! You're okay, right?"

"We're fine." Janna said, looking over at Star. "But ummm...what happened to you? You look like you got thrown in a trash compactor."

"Long, long story. I'll explain later. But as for right now, we need to get to the magic sanctuary." Star said, getting straight to the point.

"Wasn't that place destroyed?" Eclipsa asked, walking over to the two. "Last I saw, it was an abandoned pile of rubble."

"Not anymore." Star said. "Both of you follow me." Star then jogged as fast as she could down the path, with Eclipsa and Janna exchanging glances and then following her, with Janna visibly struggling to keep up.

Angie started to follow Star as well, but Star quickly stopped her. "Wait." She said. "There's actually something really helpful you can do. At this point, Marco and Bren are probably already fighting. It's been too long."

"What!" Eclipsa yelled. "Why would they be-"

"SO I need to stay here and get the car running so we get back here and make a quick escape if we need to!" Star said, ignoring Eclipsa. "Got it? Cool."

Star then continued her constant trot down the path, with Eclipsa and Janna struggling to keep up with her, leaving Angie behind them.

"Hold on!" Angie yelled, calling them back. But it was already too late. They were already too far away, and Star probably wouldn't have stopped even if she did hear it. "Star! Don't you remember? There's no gas left...in…my car." Angie said, sighing as they disappeared from view. She turned away and looked over at Eclipsa's car, only two seats strong.

"Hope we can squeeze everybody in…" She mumbled, realizing that it _would _be best if she helped in an escape attempt. She walked over to it and got ready to drive off at any moment, looking down the path with an unblinking stare.

And if she looked a little bit further, she would have seen Star going as fast as she could without having throw up from the pain, as well as Eclipsa stopping every few seconds to let Janna catch up with them.

"Star!" She yelled. "Slow down! You're going to get there before we do!"

"Doesn't matter!" Star yelled back at them. "It may already be too late…"

Eclipsa and Janna merely grumbled at this and tried to quicken their pace, but eventually Eclipsa gave up and practically picked Janna up, running as hard as she could to catch up with Star. As they got closer, they all took notice of the dozens of smashed and burned trees, a grim reminder of Bren's demon attack. Despite the memories it brought up, Star's got a small feeling of hope from it. It meant they were close. She just had to keep ignoring the pain. Just had to keep going.

Her agonizing attempts at running faster soon paid off, as the sanctuary came into view. Star put on one final and painful burst of speed, while Eclipsa did the exact opposite, setting Janna down and slowing her pace, both of them looking at the sanctuary in shock.

"Whoa…" Janna said. "Someone really did repair it."

"Unfortunately, yes." Star said. "Now come on! They have to be inside!" Star then bolted into the sanctuary, throwing the door open as her arms and legs continued to feel like they were on fire. She frantically looked around for a few moments, and saw that it was deserted. Not a soul in sight.

"Marco!" She called out, her voice echoing off the walls of the sanctuary. "Bren! Mr. Diaz! Are any of you guys here?"

But there was no response, and Eclipsa and Janna came up from behind her, the look of awe on their faces tripling.

"This...is incredible." Eclipsa said. "I've never seen anything like this before. The detail on this statues, the patterns in the walls and floor, the-"

"Oh yeah, it's really pretty." Star said, running around and searching the place. "Now stop looking at this place help me find them!"

"I don't think I'll be able to help with that..." Janna said, looking down at her crutches. "Hey, why didn't you tell us about this place before? You obviously knew about it. Marco as well. Is this Bren's hideout or something?"

"It's his…" Star started, unsure of how to put it. "...church I guess? I think it's devoted to some religion he follows, some religion of fire. It was all kind of vague. Everything he says is."

"A religion of fire…" Janna echoed, rubbing her chin and losing herself in thought.

"Yeah. That." Star said. "But it's not his hideout. He just repaired this place and turned it into some weird fire church. I don't know what it's about, and I don't really care right now."

"But why didn't you-"

"I didn't think it would be a good idea." Star responded. "If I told you guys, then you would have told the Mewnian high council, and then they would have demolished this place as revenge for the demon attack. And I knew that if they did that, Bren would just come after them, and they would die."

"You could have just asked us not to tell them." Eclipsa said. "If you _really _didn't want us too, then we wouldn't have told them anything."

"Oh...thanks." Star said. "Even if that is kind of a pointless gesture now. But come in, help me find-"

"They're not here." Janna said confidently. "They haven't been for some time now."

"How are you so sure?" Star said, not even looking at her, instead opting to check the fire pits for any sign of Marco. "Do you figure that out just by taking one look at this place?"

"No." Janna said, holding up her phone. "But I do think that the tracking device I put on Marco wouldn't lie…"

Star stopped cold and slowly swiveled around towards, her right eye twitching. "You...knew?" She asked, slowly approaching her. "Why didn't you say anything?! We could have saved Marco already!"

"Because I just got the notification five seconds ago!" Janna yelled. "Literally just after you mentioned that "pointless gesture." Please don't yell at me for this."

"Then _why _didn't you look at it beforehand?!" Star hissed at her. "Can you only look at it when you get a notification or something? Hell, what kind of app even is that?! What app allows someone to track someone else!?"

"Several apps actually." Janna said. "And for your question about the notification thing, no. I can look at it at any time. But I didn't tell you because I forgot about it with everything going on."

"F-forgot?!" Star exclaimed. "You. You forgot something?! Something as important as this?!"

"Are you surprised?" Janna asked her. "In the last half-hour I have the most terrifying car ride of my life, almost died at least ten times because of that car ride, then we arrive here, you start screaming at us to follow you, we do and you tell us to hurry up to the point where Eclipsa has to carry me, _which was extremely uncomfortable and painful by the way, _and finally, after all that, you don't give us a chance to do anything, and tell us to look for Marco. We still don't know why this is happening by the way! Or why you're all beat up! You never explained that!"

"..."

"So yeah…" Janna concluded. "I think I have the right to let something slip my mind in this situation."

Star paused, never having heard Janna talk so much in a single sentence. And she was right of course. If all that had happened to Star, then she would have forgotten a _lot _more than a tracking device. But she had just been through so much as well. Thrashed around by Marco, a terrifying car ride just like Janna's, all with an agonizing pain torturing her the entire time. She decided to just let it go.

"Okay, that's fair." Star said. "But I _have _to explain later, and I know you can understand that. So if he's not here, then where is he."

"According to this…" Janna said, looking at the screen. "He's in the abandoned section of town. Same place Mina's hideout was in. It's been a few minutes since he got there. I guess it makes sense that he's there. Bren probably would have _some _kind of secret lair in that-"

"Time to go!" Star yelled, dashing past them. "Sorry for making you run again, but come up with your questions on the way there!"

As Star ran out of the sanctuary, Eclipsa and Janna took one quick look at each other and then followed her, Eclipsa once again picking up Janna and carrying her as best she could, much to Janna's visible discomfort.

The mad dash through the forest was almost like a dream, all of them thinking about nothing else but going faster. Even if they knew it was impossible to do so without their muscles failing, it was the only thing occupying their minds. The cars soon came into view, with Angie pacing around her own. They started yelling to grab her attention, using all their remaining energy to call out.

"Angie!" Star yelled, arriving and falling to her knees. "Get the car started! We know where we're going!"

"Where's Marco?" Angie asked, rushing over to her. "Is he okay? Did you find Rafael?

"We didn't find him or Rafael. As for if he's okay, maybe, maybe not." Star answered. "But there still might be a chance to help him. So get the car started! We need to go _now._we can't afford to waste any more time."

"I can't." Angie said, earning a surprised look from the three of them. "I was trying to tell you as you ran away earlier, but you didn't hear me. My cars out of gas. It won't be able to go anywhere, unless you're up to push."

Star growled at this, cursing their misfortune. There was no time to get gas from anywhere else. But there was still Eclipsa's car. "Eclipsa!" She yelled. "We're taking your car!"

"We can't all fit." Eclipsa said, wincing. "Only three of us. The inside is extremely small, even more so than other cars like it."

"Why'd you buy a car with so little space inside?!" Star screeched.

"It was a bargain deal!" Eclipsa yelled back. "And I thought a smaller car would be easier to control.

But the point is that one of use will have to stay behind."

"I'll stay." Janna said. "I'm useless in a fight. I mean, just look at me. You guys go on ahead, I'll give you my phone so you can-"

"No!" Star yelled. "You're the most important person here. Why do you think I asked Eclipsa to bring you here? If you see Marco, I need you to hypnotize him by doing that "chickenbutt" thing! We can't do this without you!"

"You're...making this sound like _Marco's _the one that needs restraining, not Bren." Janna said. "Is something wrong with him? Or does he- wait, does this have anything to do with why you're all beat up?"

"Pretty much. Explain on the way." Star said. "But I don't care if we don't all fit, I can ride on the roof if I have too. I'm not going to give this up."

"You don't have too." Angie said. "I'll stay. You three go and save Marco. I wouldn't be of any use anyway."

"That's not true." Star said. "And you can't stay here. You're his mother for Mewni's sake! You're coming with us, and we're all going to save him."

"There's no room, and there's no time." Angie said, forcing a smile. "Star, just go. You have to go and save him. Nor one else but you can do it. You mean more to him than anything else."

"But-"

"Star." Eclipsa said, putting her hand and Star's shoulder. "It's what she decided. We have to go. Just like you said, there's no time to waste."

Star looked from Angie, then to Eclipsa, and then back to Angie. She nodded at her, and then ran over to the car, fighting back a few tears. Eclipsa and Janna then followed her soon after, and they all squeezed in. The car backed up and then took off down the street, no time wasted doing anything else.

Angie kept her smile on as they left, but the second they disappeared from view, it vanished and she turned back to her car, putting her hands on the hood. Practically hyperventilating, she wondered if what she did was right, not telling them her the truth.

Why couldn't she say it?

Surely Star would understand that no mother wanted to risk the possibility of seeing their child's body dead on the ground in front of them?

Angie knew she would understand, but she could never bring herself to tell her that.

**In the car…**

As Star looked in the rearview window back towards Angie, believing that she saw her smile vanish as they got further away. Star sighed and looked straight ahead, while Janna gave Eclipsa directions, which grew to me extremely annoying.

"So, are you gonna tell us now?" Eclipsa asked, having reached a lengthy straightaway. "About what's been going on with Marco?"

"I guess." Star responded. "But first, I need you to promise me something. Earlier, I decided that if we got there, and found Bren and Marco fighting, I would try to talk Bren out of it. That's what I told Angie. But if you see him, go as fast as you can and just run him over."

"Uhh...sure." Eclipsa said, slightly startled by this request but fully understanding it. "Run him over. Got it. And then we save Marco. Two birds with one stone."

"Precisely." Star said. "Best case, we kill him, worst case, we cripple him. Win-win either way. Then once he's taken care of, Tom will be free and Marco will be safe."

"I don't think that's worst case…" Janna said. "I think the best case scenario will be a broken bone or two, not killing him. Hm, turn right here."

"What are you talking about?" Eclipsa asked, quickly spinning the steering wheel. "Is he more tough than a normal person?"

"He's-okay, just listen." Janna said. "This is all a hunch based on one thing Star said, but if what I'm thinking is true, then we could be in much more trouble than we know. Bren might not even be the big bad here. It might be someone else entirely."

"Who?" Star asked. "Who's begins it all?"

"Turn left. It's hard to explain. It would be best with a visual aid. I have a book which can explain some things, so I'll have to show it to you guys later."

"Got it." Eclipsa said. "I just hope you're wrong. The last thing we need is more enemies to fight."

"Agreed." Janna. "Now turn right. Now, Star, weren't you going to tell us about why this is all happening?"

"Yeah, I'll try to go as quickly as I can." Star said, the memories of everything hay had happened starting to come back. "Okay, it all started soon after we got to the beach…"

**15 minutes earlier...the abandoned section of town (The Edge)...**

It only took one second.

Less than one second for the wall of flames to appear in front of him, the familiar feeling of magically being teleported a great distance returning, and then the wall vanishing before Marco's eyes. He blinked for a second, and quickly recognized it as the very edge of town, the ruined buildings viable in the distance, with some trees littering the area. Tom and Bren quickly stepped away from him, taking up a position a few meters away.

"Alright." Marco said, "not really caring why Bren brought him to this specific place. "So how are we gonna do this? Am I going to get a weapon or-"

"One moment." Bren said, before turning towards Tom. "Go wait somewhere nearby. Don't interfere, no matter what you see, no matter what you here. When the fights over, I'll come find you, depending on who won. If I don't, go to the Underworld and tell _him_ what happened. If I do win, then get ready to leave. Something I need to take care of."

Tom merely nodded and then walked away from the two, never looking back. He went over to abandoned shop and entered it, slamming the door behind him.

"Hm. He still has that temper sometimes." Bren said. "I guess it's the only form of defiance he has at this point…"

"Why don't you just let him go?" Marco asked. "Why can't you just use another demon to help you with this?"

"Ah, now there's a question I'm going to have fun answering." Bren said, turning away from Marco and peering at the building Tom went into. "You see Marco, Tom is more than just some guy who can make portals for me. I mean, that was one of the main reasons, he's really good at it, but that wasn't the only thing on my mind when I-"

"Oh for the love of god, just forget it." Marco complained, interrupting him. "I should have known that question would just turn into another one of your stupid monologues."

Bren, although visibly annoyed at being interrupted, shook his anger off and merely sighed. "That's fair." He said. "I do have a fondness for them. I would be lying if I said I don't have a list of some I'm saving for when the time is right."

"Fascinating." Marco said sarcastically. "But as I was saying earlier, how are we gonna fight? Are we gonna use weapons or our bare fists?"

"Look around you Marco, there are no weapons here." Bren said, waving his hands around. "I suppose you could count the rocks as a weapon, but I'm not. No, this will be a fight on pure physical might alone. I'm interested in seeing what you can truly do. Much like most things, I would have preferred for this to come later, but you forced my hand, just like Janna did."

"Preferred for this to come later…" Marco repeated, confused. "Do you mean that you always planned to fight me?"

"Not so much that I _planned _it…" Bren answered. "...But I did see it as inevitable. I knew you would eventually snap and want to fight me, although I admit, I am very surprised that it happened in this manner. You beating up Star and then rushing down here to fight me, I must say I did _not _see that one coming."

"First time for everything." Marco said. "So this is it then? This random place?"

"If by "empty with nobody to interrupt us", then yes." Bren said. "Here are the rules: There are none. Fight me anyway you wish, and I will do them same. Underhanded moves, using a nearby rock as a weapon, anything of that sort goes."

"Fair enough." Marco said, readying himself. "But one last thing. Why are you fighting me? Why don't you just have Tom do it."

"Simply put, you made it personal." Bren answered. "After you threw that bar at me, I knew I couldn't just have Tom kill you. I wanted some revenge of my own. Plus, I doubt Tom would have actually done it, as while he's willing you kill some random guards for me, killing you is something quite different."

Marco took on a karate stance, preparing to begin the fight. "Personal, eh? I'm sure you're going to want to kill me even more after this."

"Hm. Don't be overconfident Marco." Bren said, grinning at him. "I may not look like much, and may use Tom to kill people, but I'm fully capable of doing it myself. You see-ah, screw it. It's just like you said. I'm going to start another one of my monologues. Come on Diaz! Show me what you got!"

Bren spread his arms, daring Maroc to attack him, but Marco merely smiled at this and played his trump card.

"Bren…" He started. "Do you know why you're doing this?"

Marco didn't know what to expect next. But he did know what he wanted to happen. Bren to get a sudden look of confusion on his face, then terror, and then break down entirely, giving Marco the opportunity to grab a nearby rock and start bashing his head in. It would have been glorious.

Emphasis on the "would have", as reality decided to be much crueler on Marco than his own fantasy was.

Bren simply tilted his head at this, but did nothing more. He then smiled widely, the same smile that Marco had seen on Janna whenever she tricked somebody. "Wow." He said, unimpressed in every way. "You really thought that was going to work?"

"I-I-" Marco stuttered, shocked that it had no effect on him. "I thought it would have-"

"What? What did you think it would have done?" Bren asked him. "Did you think it would cause me to have a breakdown? To start repeating things to myself? To go crazy? Incase you haven't noticed, but that doesn't affect me anymore. Remember the meeting of the council I crashed? It didn't work then, at least not permanently, so why did you think it would work now?"

"..."

"ANSWER ME!" Bren screeched. "TELL ME MARCO, WHY DID YOU THINK IT WOULD WORK?! WHAT PART OF YOUR LITTLE PEA-BRAIN THOUGHT IT WOULD DO ANYTHING TO ME?"

"Um, are you sure it didn't affect you?" Marco asked, slightly backing away from him. "Your eyes aren't orange anymore."

"Is that so?" Bren asked. "Well then, why don't you-wait what? What did you just say?"

"Your eyes." Marco responded. "They're not orange anymore. They're green."

"Green...nononono!" Bren said, starting to freak out. "Come on! I trained myself for this. Just...remember what you're here for. Who you're supposed to be…"

The second part of this was mumbled, making it difficult for Marco to understand, but he understood enough to know that this was his chance. Seizing the opportunity, he carefully reached down to the ground and grab a rock, cupping it and preparing to strike. But just as he was about to rush at Bren with it, Bren came back into focus and glowered at him, making Marco stop dead in his tracks. His green eye coloring didn't so much as fade as cease entirely, replaced with the familiar orange color. Only this time, it was so bright it almost looked like it was glowing.

"Don't even think about it." Bren growled. "If I'm being honest, it's best I came back in that moment, otherwise I probably would have ripped your heart out."

"Came...back?" Marco asked, dropping the rock and once again stepping away from him.

"None of your concern." Bren said. "None of that is your business. I'll just say that we all have problems with who we're supposed to be, some more than others. Now, we're starting this fight now. Try that again and I will rip your fucking head off."

Seeing that Bren wasn't bluffing about the last part, Marco gulped and made a mental note to never those words on Bren again, if he made it through this. But speaking of which, it was time. He took his karate stance and got ready.

"Are you gonna do some kind of countdown?" He asked. "Or should we just rush at each other?"

"You can rush at me." Bren said, quickly composing himself. "I'm ready for you."

Alright Bren." Marco said, fists tightening. "Don't expect me to hold back!"

Bren blinked at Marco, unfazed in any way by this threat. Marco dashed towards Bren, jumped high in the air, and raised his fist to karate-chop him.

"HII-YAHH-" He started, before being cut off by Bren grabbing his wrist an inch from his face.

Marco blinked.

Bren smiled.

Marco was quickly met with Bren's fist slamming into his gut with all the speed and force of a sledgehammer, causing Marco to literally cough up blood from this one blow. Bren then let go of his wrist and punched him in the face, causing him to fly backwards onto his back.

Marco groaned in pain and weakly got up, already struggling to stand on his on his two feet.

'Oh my god.' He thought, wiping the blood off his lip. 'That felt a like truck hitting me. Just two punches and I feel like my body is already about to give out. Just what the hell is this guy? Is he even human at all? Or Mewman? That was even worse than the time Toffee smacked me into a wall. And I'm not even sure if he was holding back or not.'

Despite every nerve in his body telling him to quit, Marco knew that he had to do this. Giving up would only result in coming back with nothing, and him beating up Star for nothing, which was a fate worse than death.

"D-dont worry!" He said, barely getting the words out. "I'm-i'm not done yet!"

Bren sighed and outspread his arms. "Come on then." He said. "Finish the fight. Give me your all."

Marco started walking towards Bren and once again attempt to hit him with another karate chop. Bren however stepsided this move, and with absolutely o physical effort, grabbed his arm and twisted it around, producing a loud SNAP as the bone broke.

Marco cried in pain and fell to the ground, holding his broken arm. He could feel the shattered bone trying to poke its way through his skin, and his entire arm felt like it was on fire. How poetic. Marco tried to turn the fight around by attempting to throw a punch at Bren with his good arm, but it seemed the entire universe for rooting against him and he easily dodged the attack and landed a devastating head butt on Marco's nose, instantly fracturing the bone behind it and almost causing him to black out.

Before Marco could even fully fall to the ground,

Bren grabbed his collar and forced him up.

"You know…" He said. "If we're going to keep doing this, to keep going on with this fight, then I may as well try and enjoy it. Don't you agree?"

Before Marco could do anything, Bren grabbed a rock off the ground and slowly scraped it back and forth along Marco's forehead. Marco, too weak to try and stop him, once again cried in pain at the horrible sensation.

Bren then dropped the now blood-covered rock and threw Marco to the ground before backing away, waiting for his next move, if there was one.

Marco got on his knees and put his hand on the ground, breathing heavily. His chest hurt so much he felt like his organs had burst. His head hurt so much it felt like pieces of his skull had been embedded into his brain. His arm had already gone numb. And his forehead felt the skin on it had been scraped off with oyster shells.

But he had to keep going. It was the only thing he could do at this point. Surrender wasn't an option, and they both knew it.

He got to his feet, the only thing keeping him going being his willpower. But as he got up, gravity took control and the blood coming out of his forehead dripped down into his eyes, blurring his vision. With his legs failing and his face slowly being painted crimson, Marco struggled to move forward. But he could still see Bren clearly enough to try and attack him.

Slowly, steadily, he dragged himself forward towards Bren, who had already grown bored of the spectacle. He raised his fist, and attempted to hit him. Bren sighed and caught it, and then once again slammed his fist into Marco's chest, shattering his entire rib cage and causing Marco to fall to his knees yet again. He hacked up enormous amounts of blood as he slowly lifted his head and looked up at Bren, his eyes blurred, bones obliterated.

Marco stared at Bren and dug up what little strength the had left to speak. His voice was weak and throaty, each word causing more of his life to be taken away from him. "You-you don't have to do-"

"I know." Bren said. He approached Marco and drew his foot back. "But you agreed to my proposition, so now you have to die. It's your own fault. You could have let me walk away, but now...well, don't blame me for never having the chance to see your father again. Or anybody else really."

With almost superhuman speed, Bren shot his foot forward and kicked Marco in the chin, snapping his head back in a fountain of blood. Marco almost flew through the air and landed on flat on his back. He attempted to get up, but his muscles were spent, and too many of his bones were broken. This time, he couldn't move, no matter how hard he tried. He could almost feel the life draining from his body. If Bren didn't kill him right now, then he would eventually succumb to his other injuries. He was already dead. He knew it.

"Just so we're clear…" Bren said. "Even after that thing I did with your forehead, I'm not enjoying this as much as I feel like I should. That may not sound like much, but it is. It means there's some small part of me that doesn't want to do this to you. It makes sense. Star is the one I want. You're just in the way. You just got in the way."

Bren walked up and grabbed Marco by his throat, choking him. A large grin suddenly spread across his face. But there was no joy behind that smile. Just malice. Just hatred. Marco gagged as he tightened his grip, getting ready to snap his neck. He could feel his vision fade...he couldn't breath...he-

Marco suddenly gasped out as Bren's strip around his throat loosened, allowing him to take a breath, albeit a small one. But it was all he needed to stay alive for a little while longer.

"No…" Bren started. "I can't just kill you right here. Earlier you asked if I knew what I was doing this for. So did Star back at the meeting and sanctuary. Well, I think I do now. I'm doing this to make butterfly suffer. Killing you would definitely help me achieve that goal, but not in the way I want. I want this to last. I want her pain to last. Yours as well, but only because you just tried to kill me. Still salty about that."

Bren tossed Marco to the ground. "So many things I could do. I could torture you, continuing beating you, so many possibilities! Anything I do could make your girlfriend lose her mind!"

Bren's tone shifted, and he seemed to be greatly enjoying thinking of all the things he could do to Marco to hurt Star. His tone was filled with nothing but sadism, and Marco was forced to hear every word of it.

"Oh!" He said. "I know! How about I kidnap you, and then every day I'll cut little pieces off of you and then I'll send them to Butterfly so I can-"

Before Bren could say anything more, he was interrupted by an insanely bright light being flashed into his eyes, and he turned to see Eclipsa's smart car roaring towards him, high beams turned on and going faster than anyone thought possible.

"Ah cra-" He started, before the car slammed full-force into him, denting its hood and sending him flying twenty feet through the air, where he crashed into a nearby tree and fell to the ground, the blow doing little more than momentarily dazing him.

The car door were practically ripped open as Star, and Eclipsa got out of it and ran up to Marco, who was barely even conscious anymore. He didn't have much time left, and everybody knew that just by looking at him.

"Help me pick him up!" Star said, grabbing his legs and lifting him off the ground, ignoring the pain in her arms. Eclipsa grabbed his torso and helped Star, lifting the barely-alive Marco off the ground and into the car, and they both piled in. Star laid Marco out so he was half in the front seat, half in the storage space in the back, and everybody positioned themselves to give him as much room as possible.

Janna looked at Marco in shock, almost like she wasn't seeing him right. All of them thought the exact same thing as he lay there. 'Is it too late?' Star quickly grabbed one of his hands in a gesture of comfort meant for both Marco and herself. The hand was pale and bony, since most of the blood in Marco's body was currently seeping into the dirt outside the car.

As Eclipsa got ready to turn around and leave, Bren got up off the ground and rushed at them, his eyes glowing so bright that it was hard to see his pupils.

"OHCRAPOHCRAPOHCRAP GO ECLIPSA GO!" Star yelled.

Eclipsa slammed on the gas pedal, but Bren reached them at the last minute and grabbed cars back bumper, causing the tires to screech as he held them back.

"WHERE YOU GOING GUYS?!" He yelled, now filled with an anger that none of them had seen before.

"The brakes!" Janna yelled. "Step on the break!"

Eclipsa obeyed and put her foot on the brake, causing the car to stop, resulting in Bren ripping the bumper off and landing on his back.

"Hit it!" Janna yelled.

Eclipsa floored the gas pedal and the car roared away from Bren, leaving him in the dust. It head back into the road and made for the towns hospital, going by so fast that it left a small clue of dust behind it.

Bren watched them leave, breathing heavily. He rubbed his nose and stared at his index finger for a few moments, a single drop of blood hanging off of it.

He chuckled, and "Not bad Butterfly" was all he said as walked off and whistled a carefree tune, unaffected by what had just happened. He made a beeline for the shop Tom was in, deciding that he should probably go and "save" Marco's father, as well as punish one specific lackey for his foolishness.

**In the car…**

As Star screamed at Eclipsa to go faster, she and Janna were trying everything they could to help Marco, with little success, as most of his injuries were either internal, as well as both of them still feeling insane levels of pain anytime they moved their arms. They did their best to ignore this, but it was starting to become more difficult with everything going on.

"What do we do?" Star asked Janna, having no clue about what to do herself. "How do we help him?!"

"Uhhh…" Janna muttered out, equally ignorant as Star in this situation. Marco had so many injuries on him that she didn't even know what to try and do first, not to mention the ones she probably _couldn't _see.

"I don't know!" Janna finally responded, being as honest as she could. "I don't know what to do!"

"But-but-" Star sputtered out. "Why not?! You have to do something! Marco once told me you stopped your heart by snapping your fingers! You can hypnotize people super easily! Can't you do something here?!"

"Star, I'm not some magic healer." Janna said. "I don't have magic. I _never _had magic. I only ever had some connections to some weird people and I occasionally studied the occult and other creepy groups. I don't know what to do. For both you and Marco's sake, calm down. We can get through this."

"Calm down?!" Star yelled incredulously. "Do you see the state he's in?! How I can possibly remain calm?!"

"I don't know!" Janna yelled, her normally apathetic attitude having disappeared entirely. "But please try."

"She's right." Eclipsa chimed in. "You two fighting won't do anything for Marco. None of us are doctors. The best we can do right now is to get him to the hospital and try to stop any bleeding we can. How is he? What are his injuries?"

"Where do I even begin?!" Star shrieked, still unable to contain her emotions. "His arm is broken, all the skin on his forehead is gone, there's blood leaking out of his mouth and his nose, he's covered in gigantic bruises, land he's not even moving anymore!"

"Not...moving?" Eclipsa asked, the fear in her voice steadily rising.

"Yeah! What do you-oh no." Star said, realizing what this could mean. She quickly put her ear next to his chest and waited to hear something.

Then she heard it.

Or rather, what she didn't hear.

The worst thing she could ever think of, and something she hoped she would never have to listen to.

The sound of one heart, the heartbeat that had helped her fall asleep so many times, the heartbeat that she would always know to be Marco's...no longer beating.

"NOOO!" She screamed, grabbing the unmoving Marco and pulling him close to her. "Marco! Wake up! You can't...you…"

"Star!" Janna said. "Is he-"

"His-his heart stopped!" Star said, tears streaming down her face. "He's not breathing! He...he…"

"Oh my god!" Eclipsa said, starting to slow the car down.

"No!" Star yelled, noticing the lack of acceleration. "Keep going! Don't stop! Get to the hospital! They have to bring him back to life!"

"Right. Right." Eclipsa said, trying to concentrate on her driving. She sped the car through the streets, almost running down several people, by that didn't matter. She could have convoy of fifty police cars chasing her and she wouldn't have stopped.

Meanwhile, in the back seat, Star was still frantically trying to bring Marco back, slapping him as he was simply asleep, not lying dead in her lap. She was practically have a panic attack.

"Okayokayokay." She said, trying to calm herself despite already breaking down completely. "I'll have to give him CPR. I've seen it happen in those movies Marco showed me. It'll restart his heart. I've-"

"Star, I don't think that's going to work." Janna said, nearly having as bad a breakdown as Star. "He's lost too much blood, that's not the same as having a heart attack or drownin-"

"I don't care!" Star screamed. "We have to do something! Anything! He can't die like this! Not now! Not after all he's- no, not after all _we've _been through! I can't let that happen!"

"I'm not sure there's much we can do!" Janna yelled back. "I don't know what to do! I'm not a doctor! Sure, I can do some weird stuff, but I don't know how to help with this!"

"Can't you just do the thing you do?!" Star asked frantically. "The hypnotizing thing?!"

"No! He's dea-" Janna stopped mid sentence, unable to bring herself to say it. "I can't. I told you earlier, it won't work. He wouldn't hear me. He's not...here anymore."

"But...but...please! We have to-"

The car suddenly screeched to a sudden stop, slamming Star, Janna, and Marco's body into the back of the front seat. Both Star and Janna got up in a flash, completely unconcerned with the explosion of pain hey both received.

"We're here!" Eclipsa said. "We're at the hospital!"

"My god, that was fas-" Janna started, before Eclipsa ripped open her door and opened theirs.

"Yeah well, when you're going 60 mph over the speed limit, you tend to get where you need to go faster! I can't even imagine how traffic laws I broke. Now grab Marco and let's go! No time to waste!"

Star and Janna quickly responded to this, with Star grabbing Marco's head and Eclipsa grabbing his feet. Janna was right behind them as all three of them ran as fast as they could into the hospital, several nearby people looking on in horror.

Bursting through the door, Star started screaming wildly, catching the ears of every single person on the hospital. Ignoring the pain in her arms, she took Marco away from Eclipsa and carried him by herself, and then ran up to the closest doctor she could find. Before they could even react, she started yelling at them so fast that her words became nothing short of incomprehensible.

"HELPHELPHELPHELPHELPHESNOTBREATHINGANDHISHEARTSTOPPEDANDWECANT-"

"ENOUGH STAR!" Janna yelled, pushing past her and rushing over to the doctor. "Hey. This guy's heart stopped. Please bring him back to life." The tone she used for this was calm but also shaky, and it was easy to see that she was closer than anyone to start screaming as well.

This all happened so fast that it took a few moments for the doctor to respond, but soon they came to attention and called for help, and in no time flat a small army of nurses and doctors rolled out a stretcher, placed Marco on top of it and then wheeled him off into the main hospital. Star tried to follow them but Eclipsa held her back, knowing that she couldn't do anything.

"Let me go!" Star yelled. "I have to be there!"

"Star, you can't do anything!" Eclipsa yelled. "Let the doctors do their work. You'll just get in their way. I know you want to be with Marco, but you have to know that you can't do anything for him right now!"

"But-but what if they can't bring him back?" Star asked, her voice quivering. "What am I gonna do? He probably thinks I hate him for fighting me! He probably hates himself for it! And what are we gonna tell Angie?! I need to-"

"Star!" Janna barked at her. "Please calm down. I know how hard this must be right now. It is for me too. I'm freaking out inside. But freaking out isn't what's best for Marco right now. If he could talk to us, I'm sure he'd tell us to calm down and wait this out. I'm sure they can restart his heart. I've seen some pretty crazy medical stuff."

"Are you sure?" Star asked, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I don't want to live in a world without-"

"I'm sure." Janna said, putting her hand on Stars shoulder. "Now you might want to clean yourself up, you're covered in blood."

Star looked down at herself and saw that Janna was right, with large splotches of blood covering her dress and part of her shoes and socks. She started to tear up again knowing that it was Marco's, but remembered what Janna said, and so she simply wiped her tears away before walking off into a nearby bathroom to clean herself off. A few doctors tried to stop and help her, seeing how banged up she was, but Star pushed them away and locked the bathroom door behind her.

"Nice job." Eclipsa said, walking over to Janna. "I didn't think anybody would be able to calm her down. I just hope she lets those doctors help her soon. She's in real bad sha-"

"How are we gonna tell her?" Janna interrupted, her voice deadpan.

"How are we gonna tell her what?" Eclipsa asked.

Janna sighed. "How long did it take us to get here between the time his heart stopped? Four minutes? A little under? What did he die of? Blood loss? Internal injuries? How do you bring someone back who died of that?"

"What are you-"

"How are we gonna tell her?" Janna repeated. She then looked over at Eclipsa, a sad, mournful look in her eyes.

"How are we gonna tell Star that they're not gonna be able to bring him back?"

Eclipsa tensed up at the question, realizing what Janna meant. It was permanent. Marco's death was permanent. Eclipsa started shaking at the thought, while Janna had asked the only question anyone could ask. How could any of them tell Star?

And worse, what would she do when she found out?

She might set the entire world aflame.

**End chapter 15**

**A/N: Well, Marco is dead. At least for now. Probably. I do have an idea on how he could be revived, and it involves his whole possession thing. But enough about possible spoilers. I actually intended tie chapter to be a few thousand words longer, but it's already 40 pages long, and I didn't want to force myself too much. Hope it's a good chapter.**

**And Bren's real eye color is green! Obviously the biggest surprise of the chapter. /s. But that will become important later. A detail not to be overlooked. As for his whole torturing plot, it would have failed anyway, as Marco would have been long dead before he could bring him anywhere else.**

**Until next time.**


	16. Chapter 16: Who's behind the curtain?

**Aflame**

**Chapter 16**

**Who's behind the curtain?**

"Time of death...estimated to be 5:19 PM. Gender...Male. Patients name, as well as date of birth...currently unknown. Autopsy to be conducted later. Cause of death...loss of blood, as well as massive internal injuries. *sigh* Alright people, nothing we could do. Time to go."

Far away from the lobby, in a random surgery room, at least a dozen doctors were surrounding Marco's body, having done everything they could to save him. Which was, to say, not much. Unfortunately, the "revival" had ended before it even began, as one quick look at Marco would tell anybody that he was too far gone to bring back to life. Total brain death had occurred long before they had put him on the table. The only thing they had really done was give him a number of x-rays to determine if there were more contributing factors than blood loss and a broken arm, which was confirmed, as it showed his ribcage literally smashed to pieces, as well as a ruptured stomach and spleen, having been burst open with brute force. How he remained alive after the "fight" for as long as he did was anyone's guess.

Somebody covered Marco's body with a sheet and the doctors all slowly shuffled out, and the last one to leave started whispering to someone else in the hallway. "Send that Mewman doctor who works in the morgue to take him there, and I'll go tell the people that brought him in the bad news." The doctor said, keeping his voice as low as possible.

The other doctor nodded solemnly then walked off. None of them liked doing this. It was one of the worst parts of the job. But it was still the job. Even if it sucked sometimes.

The room Marco was in had it's door locked, and the keys given to the doctor sent down to the morgue. Everyone walked away until the hallway was bare and empty, nobody going near that room as if they all had a personal vendetta against it.

Another day, another death in the Echo creek hospital, although this one in particular would carry much more consequences than anyone there could possibly know.

**The lobby…**

Back in the hospital's lobby, a heavy sense of dread hung over the air, and not a single person was having a good time. Star had just exited the bathroom a few moments ago, clean of any blood and still looking like she wanted to cry. Her current action at the moment was to impatiently pace around, restless and awaiting news of how Marco was doing. Just like before, a good number of people had come up to asking her if she was okay, but she refused to be treated for her own injuries until she got news about Marco.

However, Janna and Eclipsa had been doing something quite different. While Star was in the bathroom, the two had a heavy discussion about whether they should tell Star that nothing could be done for Marco, and that he wasn't coming back. They decided to just let the doctors tell her, as they both feared she would attack them if they tried to tell her that. Both of them were counting down the seconds, waiting for something that still hadn't come, wondering when the bad news would arrive and Star's world would fall apart.

Right on schedule with their wondering, the door that led into the hospital slowly creaked and a single doctor came into the room, the exact same one Star had ran up to earlier. Star immediately came to attention and slowly looked over at him, while Eclipsa and Janna got ready to grab Star and hold her back before she attacked the doctor, which she almost certainly would after learning what happened.

Everybody was quiet for a moment, as if subconsciously knowing that the soon-to-be-had conversation would end badly, before Star spoke first and broke the sullen silence.

"W-well?" She asked, her voice cracking. "How is he? Is he okay?"

The doctor bit his lip and slightly shook his head. "I'm...sorry." He said, doing his best to not look away from her. "He was too far gone. There was nothing we could do for him."

Despite knowing that this was exactly what the answer would be, both Eclipsa and Janna had tears reflexively form in their eyes, still not wanting to believe any of it. They then both tensed up and nervously looked over at Star, who had frozen in place.

"W-what?" She asked, her lip trembling. "What did you just say?"

"He-he's gone." The doctor repeated, the blood starting to drain from his face. "We couldn't save him. Again, I'm sorry."

Star's gaze slowly lowered to the floor while Eclipsa and Janna snuck up behind her, getting ready to hold her down. But she didn't move. She didn't leap at the doctor. Instead, the world around her went fuzzy, and out of nowhere she threw up all over the floor and then fainted, Eclipsa reaching out to catch her as her vision cut to black. She landed on the floor with a thud, having been hit with the worst thing she ever heard.

For better or for worse, Marco Diaz was dead, and Star only saw darkness.

But as for Marco, he was seeing something different altogether .

**Somewhere…**

Aches and pains.

Nothing but aches and pains.

That was the only thing Marco could feel as his mind slowly came back to him, his entire body feeling like it had been run over with a steamroller. He groaned in pain and opened his eyes, but even that measly action hurt, his own eyelids feeling bruised and beaten as the rest of him. Everything around him was so blurry he could hardly see any of it, but he did his best to ignore this and attempted to stand. He pushed himself up off the ground, struggling all the while. As he tried to remember what had just happened, he realized that his mind was blank. He couldn't recall a single thing.

Tired of seeing everything like it was on the world's oldest TV, he viciously rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, and steadily the blurriness went away and his sight came back to him. Unable to hold it in, he let out a small cry of surprise as he saw where he was. Bren's personal church of fire, the magic sanctuary. The one building in Earthni for which held the highest contempt.

Marco rubbed his forehead and again tried to recall what had happened, and a few giant memories started coming back. Something about his father missing...fighting Star and nearly killing her...him going to the sanctuary again...and then he fought Bren for some reason? Why did he do that? And how did that all turn out? Why was he back here? Or did none of it happen at all?

He decided that the only way to know what to figure it out for himself. There was no point in staying here. The sanctuary wouldn't provide any answers if he was the only one there, so he had to find someone else. He turned around and slowly made his way to the door, he legs feeling like they were made of thin pond ice. He finally reached the handle and pulled it open, but instead of taking anothet step forward, he did quite the opposite, stumbling back in shock at the sight before him.

Emptiness.

The space outside the sanctuary was completely empty and devoid of anything. An infinite black void stood before him, stretched out in all directions. It seemed like the sanctuary was floating in the middle of space, only there were no stars, no light, nothing at all except for him.

An intense feeling of fear crept from the void into the sanctuary, and every hair on his back tensed up. He squeezed the door handle and slammed it shut as if there was a great beast outside that was trying to break in, and the sudden feeling of fear dissipated. Freaking out both internally and externally, his breathing became faster and more panicky, with his heartbeat rising at a similar rate. He leaned back against the door and slid to the floor, confused as to why any of this was happening. Did-did he die? Did Bren kill him in that fight? Was he in some twisted version of hell, and his punishment was to-

His inner monologuing was suddenly interrupted by a loud cracking sound, like someone splitting a stone in half. He jumped to his feet and looked around for the source of the noise, his eyes eventually landing on one of the sanctuaries many statues, something that for some reason filled him with anger.

The statue seemed to tremble, then twitch, and then almost like a marionette being controlled by strings, it jerked its limbs around and came to life entirely. It's eyes lit up with a fiery glow, and then set them dead on Marco, who was now almost too scared to move.

Unhurriedly, it stepped down to the floor and walked towards Marco, each step sounding like a bowling ball being thrown to the ground. Marco attempted to back away from it, but he was stopped almost instantly by the door, and he knew there was no way he was going to take his chances in the darkness outside. He slowly moved from the door further along the wall, as if the statue was a wild animal staring him down.

Upon seeing this, the obsidian idol tilted its head, as if confused by Marco behavior. It then spoke, it's voice sounding like it was being broadcasted directly into Marco's soul.

"Marco Diaz…" It thundered, and Marco froze, shocked that it could speak. "What are you doing?"

"I…" Marco started, unsure of how to respond to the question. "I'm...inching away from you?"

"Why?" The statue asked him. "Are you afraid of me?"

"Kind of, yeah." Marco said, being as honest as he could. "I mean, I'm still not even sure what's going on, or who you are, or what's happened to me."

"Then which one would you like to know first?" The statue asked. "I will answer to the fullest of my knowledge."

"Oh. Okay." Marco said, surprised that getting answers was this easy. "Um, what happened to me? I can't remember much of what happened before this."

"You fought Bren." The statue answered, confirming Marco's earlier suspicions. "You agreed to his terms when you two spoke earlier, and then you quarreled with him. But you easily lost, and unfortunately it cost you your life."

"My life-wait, I'm actually dead?!" Marco asked, now in panic mode. "I died?!"

"Yes." The statue said. "You died soon after the fight of your injuries. Specifically in Star's arms, although it took her a moment to realize it."

"No...nononono!" Marco said, falling to his knees and grasping the sides of his head. "This can't be real. Come on. Come on! Wake up! This is a dream! I'm dreaming! I can't be dead! Mom! Dad! Star! There's still...there's still so much I want to tell them. So much I want to do with them! I...I'm not ready to say goodbye!"

As Marco started sobbing uncontrollably, the statue shook its head and took another step towards him. "My condolences. As I am sad to say that this is no dream. You are dead. Bren killed you.. That is now an irrefutable truth that you must bear. Again, I apologize."

"Apologize?" Marco said, looking up at the statue, tears now streaming down his face. "Wow, thanks a lot! That makes me feel so much better! I'll get never get to see my family, my friends, or the love of my life ever again, and you're sorry for me?!"

"Calm yourself." The statue said. "There is no reason for you to be angry. There is not a single thing _you_ can do that will bring you back to life. Only the most powerful magic users have ever come close to doing something like that."

"And magic is gone." Marco wailed, losing hope. "And it's not like I would be any kind of magician anyways. So I guess this is really it? There's nothing left for me? Do I have to walk out that door and enter oblivion, or will it reincarnate me or something?"

"No." The statue replied. "Well, technically, that is one option. Those who die are given two choices. They can enter through a door, the door to the fire sanctuary in your case, and be reincarnated as another person, put into the body of a newborn baby. Or they can take their chances with judgment, and enter the place designated for them."

"What, like Heaven, hell or purgatory?" Marco asked, getting up off the ground.

"Neither of those." The statue said. "The place the dead who face judgment go to is nowhere. A realm which the living cannot reach, the space beyond the great void. Judgment is just the word for entering it, because one day somebody called it that and it stuck. Nobody knows what actually lies in that realm, as only the deceased can ever go there. The space beyond surpasses even the most powerful of gods, and is an enigma to all living creatures."

"So...I just go there?" Marco asked. "Just go to this great beyond, and then that'll be it?"

"You could do that. But like I said, there is another option, and that is reincarnation. If one does not wish to go to the beyond, they can go through the door and be reborn, but with their memories, personality, any part of what made them "them" gone."

"Why would anybody choose that?"

"Some just don't want to face more of reality. Don't want to go somewhere that they know nothing about. I don't blame them. If I had the ability to die, I would likely choose to be reincarnated. I don't want to know what lies in the great vacuum of the multiverse, and I never will."

"You...you're not dead?" Marco asked, walking towards the statue. "Then how are you here? I thought you said-"

"We are not in the great beyond. Not yet." The statue responded. "Merely a...holding area for souls. I, along with many others, have the power to freely traverse in this area at our discretion. For some reason that I didn't get the privilege of knowing, this place takes the form of whatever domain carried the most trauma for you, the place that has affected you most in the recent weeks, and I suppose that being here, at the sanctuary, should be no surprise for you."

"I guess…" Marco said, agreeing with this statement. This place really _had _affected him. How much had he thought about it in the past week? How much did he just want to demolish it, but knew that nothing good would come out of that? That place had been at the top of his mind for so long. And now he was back. Always back.

"What about Star and the others?" He asked, his mind going back to them. "What are they going to do without me?"

"They will grieve. They will mourn. What else would they do?"

"I don't know…" Marco said. "Avenge me maybe? Kill Bren? I think Star would be pretty quick to do that."

"She would." The statue said. "At the current moment, she is passed out on the floor of the hospital lobby, after receiving the news that the doctors could not bring you back to life. After she wakes up, however, she will be filled with such rage and grief that she will go to this sanctuary, tear it apart, and then wait for Bren. He will arrive, see the state it's in, and then kill her. Quite brutally I might add."

"How do you know that's what will happen?" Marco asked, furious at the idea of anybody hurting Star. "Star wouldn't-"

"She would and you know it." The statue sighed. "After that, I predict that she'll decide to be sent to the great beyond, hoping that she will find you there. But I do not see that as likely in any way. Considering…"

"Considering what?" Marco asked.

"Considering that nobody knows what is there, so the odds are against her, as it could literally be anything." The statue replied. "Also considering that the most accepted theory among others like me is that everybody gets their own version of this afterlife, and if that is true, then you two will never come back together."

"Well, that's just a theory. Like you said." Marco grumbled. "But I still don't want Star to die, even if your theory is wrong and there's a chance we can still be together. I don't want her to get hurt. Especially not for me."

"As to be expected from someone like yourself." The statue remarked. "But I would like to add a personal comment. You gave her quite a beating earlier, if my memory serves me correctly. You hurt her a great deal."

Marco winced and then looked down at the ground, rubbing his arm. "I...I don't know what came over me." He replied. "It was like I was being controlled. Or at least influenced. Something told me that I _had _to do that. Or nothing would ever be good again."

"Hm. I do remember putting that idea in your mind. I didn't think it would be so effective though."

"Yeah, well it was effective enough. Now-wait what?" Marco asked, backtracking. "What...what did you just say? Did you just-did you just say that you remember putting the idea in my mind? Were-were you the one that made me do that?!"

"I did." The statue said, admitting to this as if it had nothing to hide. "But you must understand, I had my reasons. You see, in order for-"

Marco didn't wait for the statue to say anything else. In a sudden flurry of emotion, he screamed in rage and rushed straight at it, fists raised in the air. The figure didn't even attempt to move out of the way as Marco slammed his fist into the hard obsidian that made it up, bruising himself and fracturing one of his fingers.

But he didn't even seem to feel it, as Marco continued to punch the statue, blind with anger as he continued his relentless assault. Try as he might though, he did no real damage, and soon his hands became twisted and deformed as his fingers were all broken beyond repair and his bones were shattered into pieces.

"Marco. You are hurting yourself." The statue deadpanned.

"SHUT UP!" Marco screamed, feeling nothing but pure and utter enmity. The statue looked away from him, rather bored, knowing that he would stop eventually. Which he did. After what seemed like hours, Marco ceased his punching, but only because he had nothing left to punch with. He grimaced at the sight of his "hands", with the only thing remaining being a single one of his fingers, hanging by a thread. The rest were nothing short of obliterated. It looked like he stuck them in a blender. But he felt no pain. The anger clouded it all.

"Damn it…" He cursed, and realizing that his "hands" would be of no more use to him, he started kicked the statue with every bit of strength left in him, which wasn't much.

"Marco…" The statue sighed. "Stop. This won't get you anywhere. If you could just let me explain myself, then you'd understand why I did what I did."

"I don't care!" Marco growled. "I don't care if I can't hurt you! I don't care what your reasons were! I'm not going to stop attacking you, even if I have to destroy myself!"

"Well, I can't have that." The statue said, and then grabbed Marco's shoulder and threw him backwards against the wall, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to fall to the ground, gasping for air.

"There. Now will you please listen?" The statue asked, looking down on him with a look of great disappointment.

Marco, unable to speak, responded with an angry wheeze, and glared furiously at the statue.

"I'll take that as a "yes." Now, I admit, as I already did, I caused you to attack Star. But I had good reasons. If you had not done that, you would not have gone to the sanctuary, attempted to assassinate Bren, fight him, die, and then end up here. As for what comes next…well, I need that to happen in a certain manner as well."

"Y-you…" Marco huffed. "I t-told you, I d-don't care about r-reasons. Just shut up, and let me do this. You deserve to die for what you did."

"That is for you to decide." The statue said, almost whispering it. "You are not the arbiter of what is right, or what is wrong. Neither am I. I do the things I do because doing them will prolong my lifespan. It is the only thing I can do."

"Your lifespan?" Marco asked, puzzled. "Are you dying or something? Crossing my fingers."

"Stop that. And no, I am not dying. Beings like me do not "die". We simply move on to the next plane of existence. We are too important to have our lives permanently ended. I just want my lifespan on this plane to last longer. I've taken a fondness for it."

"How terrific for you." Marco spat. "But what are you anyways? A demon? A god? You don't look anything like one."

"You could call me a god. Many have. You could call me an entity. Or the personification of worship. All of these could be considered correct. In truth, I do not know what I am. I will never understand why I exist, or what I am truly supposed to do. But I know what I _want _to do, so that it my end goal."

"Well, it seems that our end goals might have conflicting opinions." Marco scoffed, getting to his feet. "Because mine is to keep kicking you. And when my legs are just as mangled as my hands, I'll use my head. You better be cool with that, because I don't care either way."

Marco slowly limped towards the obsidian effigy, still recovering from his earlier shove, and reached it after a minute or so of painful hobbling. He continued his kicking as promised earlier, but the statue, having lost it's patience for this, placed it's hand on his shoulder again and looked him dead in the eye.

"STOP." It thundered, and as if struck by a great earthniquake, the entire are shook violently. Marco flinched away from the creature as he felt the voice scratching his soul like a rusty nail. The eyes of the statues ignited in white flames, and any bit of anger Marco had was replaced by pure terror.

"HIT ME AGAIN AND WE ARE DONE. REINCARNATION. I WILL SHOVE YOU THROUGH THAT DOOR, AND YOU WILL FACE OBLIVION. DO YOU WANT THAT?"

Marco shook his head frantically, like a toddler being punished by a parent. The statue calmed itself and its eyes went out, before letting go of Marco's shoulder and turning away from him. Marco shuddered where he stood, and the statue sighed and walked towards the center of the sanctuary at a leisurely pace.

"I...apologize for that display." It said, now calm once again. "But I didn't know any other way to get you too stop. Sadly, these types of situations always have to end in a display of force, as much as I wish they didn't."

"I-I'm sorry." Marco stuttered. "But...you made me do that to Star. Why? Why did you do that? What did she do wrong to deserve that?"

"If you hadn't rushed at me like a madman, I might have had the time to explain that." It said. "And Star did not do anything "wrong". Merely what she thought was right in the moment."

"And what was that?"

The statue stopped walking and looked back at him, with what appeared to be of mild annoyance on its face. "Why, destroying the realm of magic. What else?"

"Destroying the magic dimension? You're angry at her for that?" Marco asked. "But she did it for a good reason! She saved all the monsters of Mewni with it! She defeated all of Mina's Solarian warriors!"

"While completely disregarding the consequences it would have for the rest of the multiverse!" The statue hissed at him, before pausing and quickly composing itself. "But like I said earlier, Star did not do anything "wrong", so I have no right to be angry at her. It would be setting a bad example."

"Bad example for who-actually, you know what, I don't care who you're setting an example for." Marco jeered. "Back to my main question. Why did you make me do that to Star?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot tell you the whole truth." The statue responded. "But I will tell you part of it. As I was clarifying earlier, I needed you to do that so a specific series of events would play out. Your fight with Star, the assassination attempt, hit fight with Bren, and then your death. These events are only part of it. Many more things will have to happen soon. It all depends on what you, Bren, and everybody else does from this point forward."

"So...is this all some kind of game to you?" Marco asked, his anger returning. "Are we just puppets or something? You controlling us and making us do what you want for your own benefit? Is that what you're doing to Bren? Making him try and kill us? Is he even doing this out of free will?!"

"Please...calm down." The statue said, practically begging. "Don't get angry again."

"I'm trying my hardest." Marco said through clenched teeth. "But every other sentence out of your mouth seems to harbor something that makes me even more pissed off."

"Then do your best to control your emotions." The statue demanded. "And yes, calling yourself a puppet is slightly accurate. It was me who made you do all those things earlier. I whispered voices into your head, and you did what they told you. As for Bren...that I will not tell you."

"Fine. But whispered voices? You're seriously calling those whispers?" Marco grumbled. "Sometimes it was just whispers, but others it was just straight mind control! I would never have fought Star, no matter how many poisonous ideas you put into my head! You had to be controlling me directly there."

"Not directly." The statue disputed. "I never had full control over you. There was never a time where I took over your body. But yes, there were times when I increased the voices to such a degree that you had no choice but to do what they said. And once you started, you couldn't stop."

"No shit." Marco snapped at it. "It's all coming back to me now. I can remember everything. I remember you shushing me when I got panicked back on the sidewalk, you convincing me to just run straight to the sanctuary door when I had more doubts, and those are just the things at the top of my head. This is just unfair."

"Life's unfair." The statue said, rolling its eyes. "Sometimes you forget to do your taxes, sometimes your car breaks down, and sometimes a fire deity gives you a terrible nightmare where you're tortured, makes you beat up your girlfriend, and then makes you fight your current nemesis, who then kills you. Sucks, doesn't it?"

"Is...is that supposed to be some kind of joke?" Marco asked, coming up behind the figure.

"No." It replied. "But I am telling you that you cannot control everything Diaz. Unfairness is something you will have to cope with, and if you cannot, then so be it. It doesn't matter to me either way."

"Of course it doesn't matter." Marco muttered. "What use am I to you now anyways? You're probably just answering all these questions to entertain yourself. I'm already dead, so it's not like convincing me to do stuff would get you anything now."

Marco's eyes dropped and he sank to the floor, sitting on his knees and frowning slightly, but more out of apathy for himself then annoyance.

"You know what, I'm ready." He said without emotion, making the statue look at him in surprise. "I choose this "great beyond." I don't care about any more of your answers. If I couldn't do anything to stop you controlling me, then I guess it was supposed to happen, right? No point in listening to anything else."

"Diaz…" It started, but Marco wasn't having it.

"No!" He hollered. "I heard what I needed to hear. When Star dies, maybe I'll see her again. Maybe not. But it doesn't make any difference to me. Screw the questions, screw their answers, just send me away and be done with it. And I still have dozens of questions for you. Why you gave me that nightmare back at the beach, _because I'm pretty sure that was you, _why you're working with Bren, and what your end goal is in all of this, just to name a few. And that doesn't even begin to describe the amount of questions I have about my dad. But if nothing mattered in the end, then those things don't matter to me either. Not anymore. And the only thing you could say to change my mind about this is to say there's a way I could be revived, which there isn't. It's over for me."

The statue sighed, and prepared to drop it's bombshell announcement. "There's a way you can be revived." It blurted out, in perfect correlation with what Marco just said.

Marco paused for a moment and then looked up at the creature, wondering if his ears were deceiving him.

"What?"

"There's a way you can be revived." The statue repeated. "I can bring you back to life, if you want."

Marco gawped at the statue and put on a face of pure indignation. If he had any hands left, the facepalm he would have given himself would cause him to black out from sheer force alone.

"Oh. I see. Well then...why." He said, not even posing it as a question. "Why'd you keep your damn mouth shut? First about how you made me attack Star, and now this? What else haven't you told me?" Marco's words continued to be spoken with zero emotion, caused by either shock or disbelief at this sudden reveal.

"Lots." The statue said. "But as for why, it's because I decided that after you continued to attack me, even after I told you to stop, that you deserve to suffer for a little while longer. I would have told you earlier if it wasn't for that."

"That's why you didn't tell me?!" Marco shrieked, jumping up while his emotions returned to him. "Because you were salty that I attacked you, which, by the way, did no damage to you whatsoever?!"

"Yes. It was annoying to the extreme. You should really learn to control yourself."

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind next time I _die_." Marco said sarcastically. "But you know what, whatever. I'll try to keep calm here. So how exactly can you do that? Do you have control over life and death itself, or is there some kind of trick you can use?"

"It's complicated." The being said. "At least for you. In the earlier days, I could manipulate and control the souls of others. All of us could. It was a very special ability, one that was used scarily. We tried to keep this ability hidden from mortals and even from other god-beings like Glossaryck, because if we let it get out, then people would be praying to us all the time to resurrect their loved ones, and we were not going to have that. So we made up some BS about us having to follow rules that prevent us from doing it."

"Then why are you telling me now-hold on. Was? Could?" Marco asked, tilting his head. "It sounds like you're speaking in the past tense with this ability of yours. Is it harder for you now or something? Why would...oh. The destruction of magic. That's why, isn't it?"

"That's right." The statue said. "With the annihilation of the magic dimension, my powers and the powers of others waned. Not to a point where we weren't still extremely powerful to normal beings, but enough that we could never unleash our full potential again. It also took away some minor abilities we had. And one of them was…"

"Soul manipulation." Marco said, anticipating the answer. "But if it took it away, then how-"

"Shared abilities. Let's just say occasionally…"borrow" the abilities of someone else. Someone who kept their soul powers. Unfortunately, this time I only have it long enough that I will be able to resurrect you, and nobody else. Once you have been brought back, I must return this power before they get wise."

"So what you're saying is that if I die again, you won't be able to bring me back?" Marco asked. "Or anybody else?"

"Correct. At least not for years. So keep on your toes. You're getting a second chance here, but nobody else will. Any deaths from this point forward will be permanent, no matter what. The being I stole this power from...I would never be able to convince them to join my cause."

"Well, I guess that's that mystery solved…" Marco mumbled. "Another thing though. If you could revive me anytime you wanted, even if you could only do it once, why didn't you just do that from the start? What was the point of talking to me in the first place?"

"I was merely...interested." The statue said, looking away from him.

"Interested?"

"Yes. Interested. You see Marco, this isn't the first time I've done something like this. Across hundreds of worlds and thousands of lifetimes, I've had millions of talks with their inhabitants after death. Chats like this. You are not the first one to attack me, to insult me, or anything else of the sort. Nothing you did or said to me hasn't been done before."

"Nothing?" Marco asked. "Nothing I've done here is original?"

"Nothing." The statue replied. "Even that line you said earlier, "why'd you keep your damn mouth shut," has been said to me approximately 52 times. I don't know why, but some people just seem to use it a lot."

"Probably because you're an expert at withholding information." Marco grumbled. "But you acted like this is the first time you've done something like this. Is it the same formula every time? You let the dead person walk around for a bit, and then you appear in some form and start talking?"

"That's usually how it goes, yes."

"Oh my god…" Marco groaned. "Is there even anything special about me? How many humans have you done this to?"

"I have done it to countless humans. Your species has always been about of an enigma to me and others like me. In fact, so much so that we like to keep a close eye; make sure nothing happens that could wipe you out. We've spent a good deal of our time saving you from yourselves. That's how interesting you are to us. We all just want to see what happens next."

"Wait, so we just have a giant conglomerate of god-beings watching over Earth and making sure humanity doesn't go extinct?"

"Of course!" The statue exclaimed. "What, you really think you guys have stayed alive because you talked out your problems yourselves? It's us influencing you. If we left you to your devices, your entire world would burn in a nuclear holocaust within a week."

"Oh, um, thanks?" Marco murmured, disturbed that the only reason humanity was still around was because of someone else. "Kind of a random bit of information to just put out there...but how long have you been doing that for?"

"For a while." The statue said. "And before you ask, we didn't stop Earthni because we knew that it wouldn't wipe anybody out. In fact, we saw that it would make some improvements to the place. But all this is besides the point. Don't act like you aren't special. You are more special than at least...hm, probably about 90% of the beings I've talked to. You've had quite a life these past few years."

"Yeah. I know. I was there." Marco said. "But I'm getting some conflicting signals here. Earlier you said you just wanted to extend your lifespan, but now you're saying that you're just interested in seeing what happens next. Which one is it?"

"Both." The statue said. "Although sometimes one takes precedence over the other, they're both at the top of my mind. Survival and entertainment, that's all there is to my life. Honestly, looking at the lives of beings like you, seeing all the options you have, it's not uncommon for me to feel a little cheated."

"Well, life's unfair." Marco said, throwing the statues own words back at it. "And options? We have options? Please. Most people on this planet don't have any damn choice about what person they get to be. The only ones that do are the people with levels of money so insanely high that they can basically cheat at life."

"Then I suppose we are in the same boat." The statue said. "And congratulations for saying something I hadn't heard before."

"Really? You never heard that one before? That's a surprise…"

"True. But most species are less insane than yours."

"Based on what I've seen of the multiverse, I highly doubt that." Marco said. "The Woolandians entire culture is literally based off of fighting."

"It's still an orderly culture. It works well in its own way. They enjoy it. Unlike yours, which is chaotic and usually tortuous for everybody involved. But I did not bring you here to talk about why your species is weird. You can find plenty of that among your peers. Now, because you now know why I am doing this, I assume that all your questions that I can answer have been answered."

"Uh, no," Marco contested. "Now that I know I can be revived, there are still things that I-"

"Short on time, Star might wake up and go to the sanctuary soon." The statue reminded him. "And I already told you how _that _one will play out."

Marco gulped and consented to this. He didn't want Star to think he was dead any longer than he could allow it. "Alright then. Do you just wave your hand and send me back, or is it something else?"

"Hold on." The statue said. "There is one more thing I must tell you."

"Let me guess." Marco sighed. "I'm not allowed to tell anybody anything about what happened here. I can't tell them about you, about the conversation we just had, nothing."

"Correct." The statue said, giving him a nod. "You must keep quiet. If things are too go as I want them too, the events of this meeting between us must remain a secret. I know it will be hard, but you mustn't tell anyone. And if you do, there will be consequences. Not just for yourself but for the person or people you told."

"I get the idea." Marco said. "But what about my wounds back in the real world? What am I supposed to do after that? Are you going to take possession of me again? Where's my dad? Did Bren really take him or is it something else? I don't know-"

"You know what, I'm just going to answer all three of those at once, and then you're going on your way." The statue interjected. "One, Your wounds will be healed completely. Two, just do what you would normally do. Three, no. You have served your purpose in that regard. No more whispers. Four, also no. Bren did not take your father. He told you this himself, if I remember correctly. He was in no way _directly _responsible for his disappearance."

"Thank god…"

"You're welcome. Now goodbye Diaz. And remember what I told you. Not a word about this. In fact, just try and forget about it altogether. Now...wake."

Marco attempted to speak again, but his voice died in his throat, and the sanctuary faded into nothingness as an insanely bright light flooded his vision. He blinked a few times, onto discover that the light was coming from a large hospital lamp shining directly into his face, and he turned away and squired his eyes to shield himself from the light.

As he felt the feeling in his arms and legs come back to him, he groaned and sat up, the sheet the doctors put on him sliding down to his waist. He rubbed his head and noticed that nothing hurt anymore. He felt no pain from any part of his body. He looked at his arm, which had previously been broken so bad he could almost see bone, and his eyes widened to see that it was completely healed.

"Holy shit…" He exclaimed, poking his elbow as if to make sure it wasn't a hallucination. "That fire-god or whatever was telling the truth." He then rubbed his forehead, which had also been healed. His chest felt fine, his nasal bone was still in one piece, and he could see everything clearly. He was well and truly back.

"Heh...hehe...hahaha!" He laughed, crying tears of pure joy. "I can't believe it! That thing really brought me back to life! It really...really…...where the hell are my clothes?"

Marco suddenly turned bright red upon seeing that he wasn't wearing a single article of clothing, and he quickly looked around the room for them, desperate to protect his dignity. He finally spotted them on a nearby gurney, stacked into the most uneven pile he had ever seen, with numerous splotches of dried blood covering them. But before he could get up and grab them, he was interrupted by a loud scream, and he looked to his left to see the Mewman doctor sent to retrieve his body running out of the room, screaming something about zombies.

Yes, it was good to be back. But he had no idea how he was going to explain _this _one.

**The lobby…**

Back in the lobby, a most dismal affair was occurring. Several doctors and nurses were surrounding the unconscious Star, trying to give her assistance, while Eclipsa and Janna were doing their best to wake her up. A nearby janitor was cleaning up Star's pile of vomit with a bored expression, wishing that he had just stayed home for the day.

"Damn it...wake up!" Janna yelled at her. "I'm not losing two friends in the same day Star!"

"Move aside!" One of the doctors told her. "We have to get her into the OR. How she managed to fend us off before with these injuries is beyond me…"

The doctor had a point. Despite acting like she was perfectly fine before she passed out, Star was still covered in dozens of fist-shaped bruises and contusions, not to mention her occasional coughing up of small amounts of blood that Janna and Eclipsa had noticed earlier. The pair finally moved out of the way to give the hospital staff some room, but the second one of them laid a hand on her, Star's eyes shot open, and she leaped up off the ground, backed away from them, and started panting as if she had just woken up from a nightmare.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled at them, inching towards Eclipsa and Janna. "I'm fine! I don't need your help!"

Despite the shock they received upon seeing Star wake up and start yelling at them in less than five seconds flat, one of the doctors came to their senses and approached her, an anesthetic in her hand.

"You are _not _fine." She said. "Even if you don't think so, one glance at you would tell anybody that you need medical attention. You can either willingly come with us, or we can give you some anesthesia and then give you treatment. Please. We just want to help."

"The only person who needs help right now is Marco!" She shrieked. "What are you all doing standing around me?! Go bring him back to life! Work your Earth medical magic!"

"Star…" Janna started, coming up behind her. "Don't you remember? They told you that they couldn't do that, right before you passed out. He-he's gone. They couldn't do anything for him."

"Oh, I remember." Star growled, before turning back to the doctors. "But I don't care! Try again! Do something! Anything! As long as it saves him!"

"You're not listening!" One of the doctors said, starting to lose his patience with her. "We could try every last method of bringing him back to life, but it wouldn't do a damn thing! There is nothing we can do, Period! I'm sorry. Really, I am. But he was long gone before we even had the chance to try and bring him back."

"You-you…" Star tried to say, before turning her back to them and crouching in a fetal position, tears welling up in her eyes. Her Marco was gone. She knew it. Everybody else knew it, and they kept repeating that fact to her. But she just couldn't believe it. What he was thinking in his last moment? Was he thinking about her? About his family? About Bren, and how he failed too…

Too…

Star suddenly clenched her teeth and she wiped her tears away, her sadness and inability to accept Marco's death now replaced with pure rage. It was Bren. He had done this. He had taken her Marco away. He had taken _everything_ away from her. Her hopes, her dreams, her vision of a future with Marco and herself just living happily. Everything.

So she decided that it was finally time to return the favor.

"I'm going to kill him." She whispered, getting up and staring at nothing.

"What? What did you say?" Eclipsa asked. "Actually, it doesn't matter. Listen Star, I know how hard this must be for you. But please, for us, for Marco, settle down and don't do anything rash or-"

"I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!" Star screeched, resulting in everybody taking a step away from her. "DO YOU HEAR ME BREN?! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

"Wait! Star! Don't-" Eclipsa started to say, reached for her. But Star glared at Eclipsa and slapped her hand away, before heading for the exit.

"Grab her!" Eclipsa said to the doctors, not daring to get close to Star herself. "She's going to-"

Before Eclipsa could even finish her sentence, the doctors all responded by running over to Star and grabbing her in masse, realizing that there was no other way to calm her down at this point. Star's response to this was to try and beat them off, and the doctor with the anesthesia shot yelled at them to hold her down. Star quickly snatched the needle out of her hand and prepared to stab one of the doctors with it, when suddenly another person burst into the room, screaming like a madman.

"ZOMBIE!" He yelled, his face pale white out of fear. "THE DEAD ARE RISING!"

Every single person in the lobby, even Star, stopped what they were doing and stared at him in confusion, simultaneously wondering what he was going on about.

"...What?" One person said, breaking the silence.

"Zombies!" The doctor repeated. "The dead are coming back! Just like in the stories my mother used to tell me. We have to get out of here! The apocalypse is probably upon us!"

Despite his frantic warnings and screaming, everybody was still too confused to understand what he was talking about, and the doctors let go of Star and one of them spoke up.

"Someone came back to life?" They asked.

"Yes!" The Mewman doctor yelled at them. "I saw it with my own two eyes!"

"Who? Who's the zombie?"

"The kid we just brought in!" The doctor responded. "The one that they brought in!" He then pointed at Eclipsa, Star, and Janna, earning a look of shock from them all.

"Marco came back to life?" Star asked hopefully. "Where is he?"

"Hallway C, room 28. And he-" The doctor said, but before he could say anything more, Star dashed past every person in the room and ran into the main hospital. Everybody in the lobby ran after her except the Mewman doctor and Janna, one of which couldn't move very fast and one that was still too scared to do anything else.

"Yes!" He yelled. "Go princess Butterfly! Kill the monster! Save us!"

Janna scoffed at this excessive display and watched the group of people disappear from sight.

"Marco better have just been brought back normally." She mumbled. "Because if I get cheated out of the opportunity to see a real zombie, then somebody else is gonna be wearing these crutches."

Janna's threat fell to deaf ears as Star continued to run through the hospital, swerving around random patients and staff as she desperately searched for room number 28. The group of people behind her were yelling at her all the way, Eclipsa leading them. Still yelling something about not acting rashly. None of them knew what was going on anymore, but they knew that it couldn't be good. Eclipsa knew that if Marco was an actually zombie for whatever reason, Star would probably _let _herself be bitten so she could be with him.

And she wasn't losing them both in one day.

But Star was too fast for them, and they could only keep up with her. Eventually Star found the room she was looking for, and found the door slightly ajar. Eclipsa yelled out one final desperate shout, but Star didn't listen and kicked the door open, snapping it off one of its hinges.

She was greeted with the sight of Marco, slipping on his blood-stained hoodie and freezing in shock at seeing her just barge in. Star froze as well, praying that she wasn't hallucinating or in a dream. But it didn't vanish. She didn't wake up. It was all real.

"M-Marco?" She said, slowly taking a step forward into the room, the group of people behind her finally reaching the room and freezing as well, seeing Marco alive and well.

"Are you a zombie?" She asked, her voice shaking. "You're still you, right?"

"Am I a what now-" Marco started to day, before Star rushed forward and hugged him, his voice already confirming that it was him. They both fell to the ground together while the doctors and Eclipsa looked on in shock.

"I...don't get it." One of them said, watching Star cry tears of joy while Marco tried to push her off him. "He was dead. We couldn't do anything for him. He...this...this shouldn't be possible!"

"Well, it apparently is." Eclipsa said, stepping past them. "I'm going to try and sort this mess out. All of you just wait here. Don't follow me." She then walked into the room and started to close the door, but one of the doctors stuck their foot in and stopped it from closing.

"Hold on." He said. "We're not just going to leave you alone with him! We still don't know what happened! We don't know if he's dangerous! We-"

"I am the Queen and one half of the duumvirate, and I am ordering you to wait outside this room until I am finished talking to them." Eclipsa said, giving them her best serious look. "Do you understand that, or am I going to have to make you?"

"..."

"That's what I thought. Wait here. No matter what." Eclipsa then shut the door in the shocked doctors faces, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thought that would work. It's probably best if I settle this by myself. Now onto those two…"

Eclipsa strode towards the pair, Marco still writhing underneath Star's crushing hug while looking at Eclipsa for help.

"Help me…" He whimpered, his face turning red. "She's crushing me…"

"Star, let go of him. He can't breath." Eclipsa said, to no effect. She sighed. "Star, don't let him die twice in one day."

Star stopped and seemed to hear this, pausing her hug and then letting go of him, but still sitting on top of him, wiping the tears in her eyes away.

"Sorry, Sorry, don't want that…" She said, her cheeks red from crying. "I just...you're back! Everybody told me you were dead! But here you are, fine and dandy! I don't see a single injury on you anymore! I thought-I thought I would never see you again."

"Neither did I." Marco said, squirming out from under her and standing up. "And technically, I'm pretty sure I was dead."

"Not anymore." Star said. "And that's all that's important."

"Actually…" Eclipsa said, approaching both of them. "There are things that are more important than that right now, and I'm just going to-"

"Wait. There's something I want to say first." Marco said, turning towards Star. "Star...I...I'm sorry. About what I did back at your bedroom. About the fight we had. I-I didn't know what came over me, and I know you're probably never going to forgive me, but please understand that I was-"

"Being controlled by someone else?" Star said, anticipating his next words. "Yeah, I figured as much."

"Wha-how?" Marco asked, tears forming in his eyes. "How'd you know? I thought that-"

"Well, for starters, your eyes changed to match Bren's." She said. " All orange and fiery and stuff."

"My-my eyes changed color?" Marco asked. "That's...odd."

"Oh yeah. And then there was the whole deal with you having super-strength, and not acting like yourself, and then just leaving me there, wherein the really Marco would have helped me, even if we had just fought."

Marco didn't say anything to this. He was thinking back to his fight with Bren. About how his eyes changed to a green color after he said the words. Could that fire god thing be controlling Bren too? Was he a puppet as well, just as innocent as himself? Nothing but a slave? It had mentioned something about Bren, but didn't go any further than that. But what did it mean if Bren was really being-

"Earthni to Marco." Star said, snapping him out of his stupor. "Jeez Dude, you were sitting there for like a minute not saying a word. Kinda freaked me out."

"Oh. Sorry." Marco apologized. "But...you really don't hate me for this? Not after everything that happened? I mean, just look at you!"

"Marco, we've already established that whatever it was that attacked me in my bedroom, it wasn't you. I don't know what it was, maybe you can fill us in on that later, but yeah, I don't hate you. Not for this."

Marco smiled and wiped his tears away. "Th-thanks. I-I'm glad I can still count on you. You cannot believe how scared I was that our relationship might have been ruined by this."

"I think you dying might have accomplished that…"

Both of them looked at each other and then giggled at this joke, before abruptly stopping.

"I-I don't actually want to laugh about that."

"Yeah. Sorry. Too soon. Waaaay too soon." Star said quickly.

"If you've both reestablished your love for each other, I'd like to ask some questions of my own." Eclipsa interrupted, who had been watching the whole time. "Although that whole thing was amusing as it was adorable." She whispered to herself.

"Oh right. What were you saying earlier?" Marco asked.

"As I was about to say...how?" Eclipsa asked. "The doctors told us you were dead. A great number of times. So how exactly did this happen?"

"Like, how I was brought back to life?

"Yes." Eclipsa said. "Do you have any idea?"

Marco was about to answer, but then the words of the statue echoed in his mind, and he reckless it telling him not to tell anyone what had happened. He had to lie. It had said that the consequences for everyone involved would be dire if he told the truth.

"I don't know." He said. "I don't even remember seeing anything. Star's voice...a few more voices...darkness...and then the light of that lamp." He pointed to the hospital lamp, the same one that had almost blinded him earlier. "Then I saw that a doctor screaming about zombies, I put my clothes on, and then you guys showed up."

"Nothing?" Eclipsa asked, unconvinced. "You really saw nothing at all?"

"Yeah." Marco said. "Just...darkness. Some infinite void."

"Hmm…" Eclipsa thought, looking Marco up and down. "Well alright then. But on to something else then. About the injuries you had. They're all gone. There's not even any scars. Almost like they were never there to begin with…"

"What's your point?" Marco asked.

"My point is that magic had to have been used in your resurrection." Eclipsa stated. "Powerful magic to be precise. Healing spells can usually only do one thing at a time, but whatever you were hit with...are you sure you're feeling okay? You lost a lot of blood back in your fight. You're not feeling dizzy or nauseous right? Anything like that?"

"I told you, I'm fine." Marco said. "I'm in no pain whatsoever. I don't feel bad or dizzy or any of those. I don't think there's a single thing wrong with me anymore."

"We'll see about that. But as for right now, Star, can I talk to you over here for a moment?" Eclipsa asked, walking to the other side of the room.

"Oh. Uh, okay." Star said, separating herself from Marco and walking over towards Eclipsa. Marco got the impression that this was a conversation meant for them and then alone, so he stayed where he was.

Once Star had reached Eclipsa, she leaned in and started whispering. "Yeah?"

"Somethings wrong." Eclipsa whispered back. "This doesn't feel right."

"I feel that way too." Star said admitted. "I mean, Marco was brought back to life just like that. With no real explanation at the moment, of course this doesn't feel right."

"It's not just that." Eclipsa hissed. "I...I just...okay, I'll say it flat out. The pieces aren't fitting together."

"How so?"

"His story. About how he saw nothing but darkness. It's a lie. I've met people who have been brought back to life through magic."

"Wait, how can you be so sure this was magic?" Star asked, before realizing the stupidity behind her own question.

Eclipsa said nothing, and simply gave her a look.

"Yeah yeah, realized as soon as I said it…" Star sighed. "But what was this about people who were brought back by magic?"

"Maybe I should start somewhere else with that. People who died, they see a variety of things. A bright light, familiar faces, past memories, all kinds of things. At least, this is how it is for people who are brought back _regularly_. The Earth way, you might say. But when people are brought back by magic, they always report the same thing, without fail."

"And that is…"

"They meet someone." Eclipsa explained. "A being, an entity, some kind of god, the reports vary greatly. But in the end, they meet this person, they chat, and then they are brought back. But it all ends the same way. Anybody who was resurrected that tells other people what they saw and heard dies soon after, along with everybody that heard them."

"Wait, if this is true, then how do you-"

"Because I never heard any specific reports." Eclipsa said. "Just that this is what happens. I don't know what anybody ever saw exactly. Haven't been that unlucky."

"So who or whatever is bringing people back doesn't want anybody knowing about them?"

"Precisely. And if they spill the beans, then they die. Often in "mysterious" ways. But they are murdered, the numerous autopsies performed on them proved this. There's no real point in keeping that a secret."

"You think Marco had one of these "chats?"

"Almost certainly. And he lied in order to protect us. No doubt that whoever he met with ordered him to keep quiet."

"So where does that leave us?" Star asked, glancing back at Marco, who was busy looking at his fingers for some reason.

"It leaves us with no clue about what to do next." Eclipsa said. "This means that there is someone out there. Someone extremely powerful, watching over Marco for some reason. And likely the rest of us. As well as likely altering events to suit their needs."

"You think it has anything to do with Bren and his church of fire? He did say he worshipped some God. Maybe it's that guy."

Eclipsa paused and then looked away from Star, deep in thought. Like a lightbulb going off in her head, she turned back to her and started swearing intensely under her breath.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Star asked.

"I remember." Eclipsa responded. "Something Janna told me before you called telling us to go to the new and improved sanctuary, _which we will discuss later_, and I just remembered it now. We were talking about the demons of the Underworld, and she mentioned that the people that created the same types of demons that Bren used to attack the town got that energy from faith. The faith that they had in their god, who gave them the power they needed."

"In their god? You don't think-"

"I do." Eclipsa said. "Whoever gave Bren the ability to bring that demon back, they're the same person that brought Marco back to life. This is a divine threat we're dealing with. Oh Mewni, they're probably watching us right now! They might be hearing everything we say!"

"Quiet down." Star said. "Marco's still here. And as terrifying as that possibility is, it doesn't add up all the way. For one thing, Bren wasn't the one who brought the demon back, it was Tom. He snapped his fingers and brought it to life! Remember what Janna said? It was with demon...magic...oh shit."

"What is it?"

"I remember something else she said." Star said. "Janna said that demon magic was created by this supremely powerful being. One that was proud of its creation and disconnected it from the magic realm so it would never die out. She said it was still around. I think that-"

"It's the same damn person." Eclipsa growled. "It's all connected. The creator of demon magic is the same person who resurrected Marco. The same person who gave Bren his power. The same person who's probably behind every bad thing that's happened the last few weeks. This...this is unprecedented."

"How do we stop this person?" Star asked. "Hmm,'I bet Janna knows something. I wonder how-"

"Stop?!" Eclipsa exclaimed, losing control of her voice before returning to a whisper. "Star, this is a literal _god_ we're dealing with. I'm not sure if anything we puny mortals do would be able to stop it. We can't ask Marco what it said to him because it'd just kill us for learning, and no spell that Tom taught Janna would likely be able to do anything to it either. We are completely at it's mercy here."

"I'm still confused though." Star said. "Why would the same person who's helping Bren also help Marco? Bren literally killed Marco with the powers probably gone to him by theirs being, and then it just brought it him back to life. Like, what the hell!?"

"I can't make any sense of it either." Eclipsa said. "But I don't think we could understand even if we knew why. For now, we do what we can. We be as careful as possible, even if it won't do us much good. At this point, the only thing we _can _do is hope for the best."

"That's disheartening." Star said. "But what other pieces aren't fitting together? What else did you notice?"

"The blood."

"The blood?"

"He bled out." Eclipsa said. "I'm going to assume that's what killed him, considering just how much of it we saw. It might not have, but it's what I'm going with. Anyways, the thing about bleeding out it that you can't use healing magic on it. Even if you heal the wounds, the blood is still gone. They're still dead."

"What's your point?"

"When that god resurrected him, it didn't just heal his wounds. It literally...refueled maybe? Sure, it refueled the blood in his body and then healed him. Which means this god isn't just a god of fire. Gods have abilities that pertain to what they are gods of. It could create demon magic because demon magic mostly related to fire and stuff, at least that's what Janna told me. But it should not have the ability to to bring Marco back like that."

"Why not? It's a god. Shouldn't gods be able to do whatever they want-"

"Because there are rules Star." Eclipsa said. "Rules older than them. They must follow these rules, set in place by a being more powerful than any other. Only having abilities that pertain to them is one. So whoever did this...I think they...or perhaps...no. I don't know. I don't know how they did this. Maybe there's more than one god at play here, but that would just be catastrophic, especially if they were at odds with each other. If they fought, then…"

"All of Earthni would be collateral damage the next morning?" Star guessed.

"The entire _planet _would be collateral damage. The whole world used as a weapon of war. Nobody would survive. The whole galaxy would quake at their quarreling."

"That's bad." Star said, stating the obvious. "I guess that means we might all be dead by the end of this, right?"

"We may well be. Although I suppose that's what you get for destroying an entire dimension."

Star sighed. "Then it's like you said. We can only hope for the best, and do whatever we can do. But one last thing. About this god not having the ability to resurrect people. Are you absolutely sure about that? Are you sure that it couldn't have brought Marco back?"

Eclipsa shook her head. "Definitely not. Everything I just said might have been false. Most of it was taught to me by Glossarcyk, but even then it was just vague and full of hints."

"Yeah, he never was one for straight out answers. I've experienced that as well."

"We all had to at one point or another." Eclipsa said. "But you know something? I really wish he was here. Even if to just give his stupid hints. He might know what to do. He might be able to talk this being into backing down."

"Sure, if we have him a couple dozen cases of pudding first." Star said. "And you're right. It would be nice just to get one piece of advice from him. Although now I wonder if he's really dead."

"Why?"

"Well, these god beings are obviously still alive." Star answered. "So what if Glossaryck is too? If they could do it, then I feel like he should have been able to as well."

"I don't think so." Eclipsa said. "He was...different from the rest. He was never truly one of them, never among their ranks, he told me this himself. They didn't like him because they felt he spent too much time interacting with us rather than his fellow immortals, and he didn't like them because they, and this is exactly what he said to me, never "chilled out."

Star giggled slightly at this, but her smile soon faded. "Almost makes me miss all those dumb lessons. Almost."

Eclipsa responded with a chuckle of her own. "Yeah, I don't miss those things _too _much. But as I was saying, he was different. He _was _magic, personified. So when the magic dimension was destroyed, he was too. It's how he worked. And because of that, he doesn't exist anymore. Not here, not anywhere."

"I don't know. He already died once. I wouldn't put it past him to survive death a second time." Star said, remembering his resurrection back at the magic sanctuary.

"I think this time was different." Eclipsa said. "But…...we've already had this conversation before Star. So many times. We searched everywhere for any sign of him in the early days of the merge, remember? We found nothing."

"I remember." Star said. "It was an experience I don't want to recount. So let's drop it."

"But you see my point, right?"

"Yeah." Star said, her head dropping. "I see it. So Glossaryck is gone, some kind of fire-god is in complete control of the situation and there's nothing we can do about it, and we have nowhere to go from here. I think that's what the entirety of this conversation ended up being."

"As much as I wouldn't like to agree, that's basically the whole of it." Eclipsa said. "But there's still a lot we have to talk about. There are somethings Janna told me that might be useful. Not to mention the things she's going to tell me, as well as the things you are Marco are going to tell at the meeting tomorrow."

Star groaned. "On please no. Can we put that on hold? So much had happened today that I'm still trying to process things from an hour ago. Can we not talk about the future?"

"If you insist." Eclipsa said. "But no, we can't put it on hold. The information you two have to share that you got from Bren will probably be useful or something, so you have to tell them. And...ugh. You're right. I don't care right now. Let's deal with what's going on with Marco, and then we can talk about that obnoxious meeting later."

"Now you're speaking my language." Star said. "Marco? We're done talking."

Both of them looked over at Marco, who was half asleep, slumped in a chair on the other side of the room. He groggily turned his eyes towards them, and then stretched and sat up.

"About time." He said. "You two were mumbling nonsense for what felt like forever."

"Sorry." Star said. "But we had a lot to talk about. There's still a lot to talk about…"

"It's fine." Marco said. "I get it. This is just as freaky for me as it is for you. Brought back to life with no explanation, I'll admit it, I'm just as lost as you are."

Star tilted her head at this and glanced to her left and right before looking back at Eclipsa. She quickly tugged on her sleeve and had them both turn away from Marco again.

Marco bit his lip and sighed. "Oh come on."

"What is it?" Eclipsa whispered as the two walked away from Marco again. "What's wrong now?"

"Should we tell him?" Star asked. "About how we know about the chat he had, about the being, and how he was resurrected. You did say he was lying. He knows. We know. Are we going to tell him we know?"

"I...hmm." Eclipsa started, before trailing off. That was a good question. One one hand, if they did tell him, Marco would probably just deny it and claim he didn't remember anything. Then that would be the end of it, as trying to push him further into telling them the truth would end badly. For all of them.

But on the other hand…what if he did tell them? He had already been through so much in the last day. On their way to save them from Bren, Star had told her and Janna everything. About his horrible nightmare and the atrocious tortures he went through, being possessed and forced to beat Star to near death, then having to fight Bren, which obviously didn't end up in his favor. So much pain. So much suffering. It was a miracle he was still sane at the moment.

If they pushed him, if they tried to force him to tell them the truth, then he might break down, and that sanity would crumble to pieces. And that wasn't even mentioning being revived by the god that was behind this whole mess. That settled it. They wouldn't tell him. One option wouldn't end with any benefit, and the other would likely end with their deaths.

"Absolutely not." Eclipsa finally said. "I just thought it all through. There's no point. Keep quiet for now. It's best if he didn't know that we know."

"Got it." Star said. With that, they both turned back to Marco, who was slightly peeved at having to wait for them to finish their private conversation for a second time.

"Okay, now we're _really _done." Star reassured him, before looking over at Eclipsa. "I mean, right?"

"Yes, of course." Eclipsa said. "I'm done if you are. Now Marco, we've talked it over, and we think you were brought back to life with magic. We don't know who or what brought you back with this magic, but we can find no other explanation. Your wounds have been healed completely, you seem to be in your right mind, and the only evidence that you died at all is the dried blood on your clothes." Eclipsa pointed at Marco's hoodie and pants, the brown stains on them sticking out like blobs of oil dropped into a cup of water.

Marco nodded. "Yeah, um, I think you're probably right. It has to be magic. There's no way the doctors did something to be. The first guy I saw when I woke up ran out of the room screaming about zombies." He chuckled slightly, but just like with Star's earlier joke, his laughter soon faded away. He still wasn't comfortable joking about anything at the moment.

"Hm. Unfortunately, the zombie guy was the first person that told us you came back, after he burst into the lobby." Star complained. "Heck, why did you think I asked if you were a zombie when I first saw you? Although, after everything the doctors told me, I probably would have asked that even if the zombie guy hadn't put that idea into my mind."

"Okay, but what if I _had _been a zombie?" Marco asked. "What would you have done then?"

"...I'm not going to answer that." Star said, visibly disturbed by the question. "But on another note, I think we should make a plan on what to do now. Eclipsa?"

Eclipsa nodded. "The best course of action from this point forward would be to find whoever brought you back to life Marco, and learn why. Whoever did this is likely extremely dangerous, so we're going to need help finding and subduing them. I think I'll ask the Mewnian knights to help us again, as well as the Echo creek police departm-"

"Whoawhoawhoa!" Marco said, putting his hands in front of him. "There's still something I need to do. I need to find my dad! I still have no idea where he is!"

Star groaned. "Marco, last time you went looking for him, you had to beat me into a bloody paste in order to do it at all and then you died! I don't think looking for him would be the best course of action at the moment, because I'm pretty sure that it won't end well! And please don't tell me you still think Bren took him."

"I don't." Marco said, remembering what the statue said. "But I still have a feeling that something bad has happened to him."

"I...okay." Star said. Although she still believed Marco was acting dramatically, the memory of what happened last time she refused to help him find his father was still fresh in her mind. She didn't know if that could happen again, but she wasn't about to risk it. "We'll go look for your dad. After we tell Angie what happened we-"

"Actually, can we not tell my mom what happened to me?" Marco asked. "I-I'd really prefer she not know."

"Wha-Marco, you _died _and then you were magically resurrected. We have to tell her." Star said. "I get where you're coming from, I get that she's gonna freak out, but whatever brought you back is still out there, and we need her to know if it comes back. All hands on deck for this one."

"All hands on deck? Wait, does that mean-"

"Yup. We're telling everyone." Star said. "Your mom, my mom, the Mewnian high council, all our friends, everyone. Me and Eclipsa think that this is a lot bigger than it seems. That it could be an even bigger threat than Bren. So if it comes down to it, then we need all the help we can get."

"Even Ponyhead?" Marco asked.

"Yes Marco, even Ponyhead." Star sighed. "Like I said earlier, I get it. If this had happened to me, then my mom would go into a frenzy, even if my death hadn't been permanent. But she would still need to know. And it's not like you could keep it a secret from your mom forever. If you or me didn't tell her, then you know Janna or those doctors would."

"That's fair." Marco said. "Janna would never keep her mouth shut about this one. Alright. Alrightalrightalright. But can you tell her? I don't think I have the strength to."

"Sure". Star said. "I'll-"

"No, I'll tell her." Eclipsa chimed in. "Marco, if you don't want to, then that's fine. But Star, you can't tell her right now, and you can't help us look for Marco's father either."

"Why not?" Star asked. "What's wrong with me?"

"Star, I'm pretty sure that you're in no condition to do anything else right now." Eclipsa said. "I let you put this off for a while, but it's time you finally get medical attention for the injuries that Marco gave you."

"Psh! I'm fine!" Star said. "That's exactly what I told the doctors earlier, and that's what I'm going to tell you! Sure, every part of me hurts, but I'm still talking okay! I'm still standing! I'm still...still…"

Star speech was interrupted by her suddenly letting out several loud coughs, which ended with her spitting out a few drops of blood onto the floor, which Marco and Eclipsa looked at as if they were a biohazard.

"Still fine!" Star finished, while wiping the blood off her mouth. "Still fine."

"Alright, that settles it." Eclipsa said. "I'm not a doctor Star, but I'm pretty sure that means you're dying, or at least going to die if you don't get help. So as Queen, I am ordering you to let the doctors outside give you medical attention."

"But-you-ugh. Fine." Star groaned, throwing her head back. "I'll let all those quack doctors check me out. But I've already made it this far. I'm only doing this because you told me too."

"That's good enough." Eclipsa said. "Now Marco, they're probably going to want to prefer I'm who know how many tests on you, so you should probably go with them too. Who knows how they'll classify this. I believe I heard a term once..."medical anomaly" I believe it was called?"

"Those usually only pertain to things that start from birth." Marco said. "But yeah. Who knows…"

"Then let's get it over with." Star said. "Come on."

All three of them opened the door to the surgery room, where a miniature army of doctors and nurses were still waiting outside. They all stopped their conversations the second the door opened, and eagerly waited for a response.

"Okay." Star said. "You guys can check me out now, even though I don't think I'm injured. And you can check Marco out as well to run all your tests or whatever you're going to do."

The doctors responded to this by literally grabbing the both of them, half of them running off with Star and the other half literally dragging Marco away like treasure hunters with a chest full of gold. Some of them were even whispering about the "secrets to immortality" and other such nonsense. Eclipsa overheard this and merely shook her head, knowing that they were farther from the truth than any of them knew.

'Then again, even if I did tell them, they probably wouldn't believe me.' She thought. 'Men and women of science, natural opposites to magic. I remembered the reaction of some when we first arrived. So many believed it was a dream. I have no doubt that there's still a few out there still believing that fact. But people can believe what they want to. It's not my place to force them to change their minds. I only wish they'll learn to do that by themselves.'

Now standing alone in the hallway with her thoughts, Eclipsa turned away and headed back to the lobby, noticing that the entire hospital seemed deserted of staff. It was like every single person had either gone with Star or Marco.

'So much for the other patients…' She thought, surrounded by an eerie silence. 'Who's going to help _them_ if something happens? What with everybody running off with those two, it looks like everyone's been left to fend for themselves.'

Eclipsa sighed internally, wondering how she had gotten to this point. How any of them had gotten to this point. The past few days had been one giant mess, only now she couldn't wave her wand and use magic to clean it all up. Janna was the only one who knew how to do any of that. She pondered about what other spells she might know. Who knows what that Lucitor boy taught her. They had only just started talking when they got the call from Star, screaming at them to get to the sanctuary. A secret which Star had foolishly kept from them. Even if that little blight Bren had threatened her to not tell anyone, she still needed to know.

Or did she? Eclipsa stopped where she was and put herself in Star's shoes. What was she thinking about? She had almost lost everything about an hour ago. If that doctor hadn't burst into the room, screaming about Marco being a zombie, then it might already be over. She would have marched down to that sanctuary and torn it to level, brick by brick. Then Bren would kill her like he did to Marco. Then-

Eclipsa shook her head and quickly washed her mind out, erasing the thoughts she was having. It was pointless. There was no need to be postulating on what might have gone wrong, because it didn't, and that was all there was to say about it. She started walking to the lobby again, not caring about what _might _have happened, but only what she knew was going to. That was all that mattered.

After a minute or so of walking, she saw the familiar double doors that led to the lobby, and pushed them open. There she could see Janna and the Mewman doctor conversing with one another, talking about what sounded like the coming apocalypse. The doctor had a wild look on his face, while Janna seemed a few seconds away from drowning him out entirely.

"I'm back." Eclipsa announced, catching the attention of them both. "And I have confirmation. Marco was brought back to life."

"So he was a zombie!" The doctor said. "Did you kill him? Please tell me you-"

"He was not a zombie!" Eclipsa yelled, getting tired of that little rumor. "He was simply...resurrected, with all his wounds healed. Me and Star theorized on how this happened, and we think we know how, but we don't have any real proof at the moment, so it's still an enigma."

"Well that's neat." Janna said, returning to her normal self in an instant. "So Marco was brought back to life. Cool. I wonder what he saw on the other side…"

"About that." Eclipsa said, before turning towards the Mewman doctor. "Could you leave us alone for a moment? I need to talk in private."

"Yes of course." The doctor said. "I need to see this for myself. And to make sure he's still not a zombie." The doctor then ran off, leaving Eclipsa and Janna wondering how he was even approved for this job.

"Anyways…" Janna said. "I feel like you're about to reveal something big to me, so I want to ask you something first. Where's Star and Marco?"

"Star is being treated for her injuries, and Marco is probably being tested on as we speak." Eclipsa said. "I suspect that we'll be without them for a while, so it's just us at the moment."

"Makes sense." Janna said. "Now, I should tell you, I used the hospital phone by the front desk and called Angie's cellphone and filled her in on what happened. It went to voicemail, so she might not have even heard yet."

"You might want to call her again." Eclipsa said. "Let her know that Marco is alive again. Because I'd rather her not think Marco is dead permanently for even a moment. I went through that with my own daughter for a while, and it was…...not a pleasant experience."

"I sympathize. But before I do that, what were you going to tell me? About what you guys think revived Marco?"

"Yes, we have a bit of a theory on that…" Eclipsa said. "We believe that everything that's happened in the recent days, everything involving Bren, that sanctuary, the demon, maybe even Mina and her followers, were all the work of one being who's been manipulating events for its own gain."

"Ah, that's bad." Janna said, sitting down on a nearby bench. "Because if what you're saying is true, then whoever this is is someone with pretty powerful magic. Maybe even on the divine scale of things."

"That's exactly right." Eclipsa said. "Me and Star are convinced that a god, or a being that's at least god-like, is the one behind the curtain. And remember back when Bren's demon was destroying the town? When you appeared and told us about the god that created demon magic?"

"Yeah, why is that important?"

Eclipsa did a sort of mini shrug, looking at Janna like she had expected her to get it by now.

"What are...Oh. Oh…...shit." Janna cursed, realization hitting her in the face.

"That was my reaction as well." Eclipsa sighed. "We think they are the same person. The same god. The one who's behind _everything_."

"Then we're well and truly screwed." Janna said, leaning back on the bench. "Nothing we can do against _that _level of power. Let's just wait it out and hope for the best."

"While that is what we suggested at first," Eclipsa started. "No. No, I think that we have to do more than "hope for the best." Lazing around won't get us anywhere."

"So what do we do?" Janna asked.

"Same thing we've always done." Eclipsa answered. "Fight it as best we can. First we do the original _original _plan, taking out Bren and any accomplices he has. Then we deal with this god. Try and talk it out. Whatever reason it has for doing this, it has to be important."

"I'm betting Star or Marco know the answer to that one." Janna mumbled. "Or at least they know _something_. There's so much stuff to take in nowadays. I'm not sure how much more my brain can handle."

"Agreed." Eclipsa said. "I need a break. More than anything, I just want a break from all of this. After months of making sure that humans, Mewmans, and monsters weren't at each other's throats, now I-now _we _have to deal with this. This new threat."

Janna closed her eyes in contemplation. "So what do you suggest we do? How do we deal with Bren?"

"I'm going to work on that." Eclipsa said. "I think the best option would be to capture him in some way and then-"

"Have fun with that." Janna snorted. "Star's gonna want to kill him after what he did to Marco. I mean, she probably did before, but now even more so. Even if Marco came back to life, the short amount of time that she thought he was dead for good is enough. She's going to tear him limb from limb if she so much as spots him."

"I don't think she'll have much luck." Eclipsa said. "You saw Marco. The extent of his injuries. And I briefly saw Bren before I hit him with my car. He was fine. There wasn't a single scratch on him. And even _after _I hit him, he wasn't even bothered by it. He just got up and ran straight for us. I don't know how he was able to do that, but if Star wants to try and fight him, then she's literally going to have to come in guns blazing. Because after that, I think the only thing that could hurt him would be to shoot him with those firearms that you humans make."

"That might not even be enough…" Janna murmured. "If what the book said is true."

"What book?"

"It's a…...well, actually, I'll show you once they release Star and Marco." Janna said. "Because what I'm about to show you, you _all _need to see it. It may be integral to your plan to capture Bren and deal with that god."

"I hardly even have a plan yet." Eclipsa said. "But those two aren't the only problems at the moment. We still have to deal with the towns lack of money, Bren's control of Tom which causes us to be cut off from the Underworld, thus sapping us of the support of one of the most powerful kingdoms, and finally, something that just popped up yesterday, there have been rumors of a secret pro-monster society meeting in the forest of certain death. Not really a problem, but something that we should still check out."

"Hm. I have no doubt that Star's somehow involved with this monster society." Janna said. "Seems like the kind of thing she'd support."

"That's true." Eclipsa said. "At least we're don't have to deal with Mina or any more of her monster hating followers. That ugly bigotry died with her and her followers being sent to prison. That's the only good thing to have come out of all of this."

"Ummm…" Janna fretted, now looking at the muted TV hanging on the lobby wall, broadcasting the local news. "I wouldn't be so sure about that…"

Eclipsa followed Janna's gaze and turned towards the TV, her eyes going wide at the sight of the headline.

"**Mina Loveberry's followers and dozens of other escape from prison in massive breakout early this morning. Suspected to have been an inside job"**

Eclipsa looked back at Janna, who was now pressing her forehead against the table in front of her, her brain finally shutting itself down. Eclipsa, on the other hand, looked back at the TV and let out a long and rage-filled expletive, tempted to tear the TV out of the wall. Fortune had turned against them once again.

Yet another problem to add to the list. One that she just didn't have the energy to deal with, and one of many more yet to come.

**End chapter 16**

**A/N: Well, that happened. Marco's alive, had a nice chat with a god, Mina's followers are back to ruin everything out of nowhere, and they actually already did something mentioned earlier. The next few chapters are going to focused on dealing with them, Janna's mystery book and the secrets it holds, as well as a specific lackey that Bren kinda-mentioned last chapter.**

**Until next time.**


	17. Chapter 17: The worst day ever

**Aflame **

**Chapter 17**

**The worst day ever**

Many words could be used to describe the current tone in the Echo creek hospital lobby.

Boring. Dull. Soulless. Devoid of any positive emotion. Even with the recent news about the prison break, Eclipsa and Janna had been waiting long enough that they were already starting to completely forget about it, with their minds wandering to new and tedious places in the meanwhile. Both of them hoped that it was impossible to die of boredom, because if it wasn't, then Marco's death would be far from the only one today.

Time and time again, Eclipsa would ask the front desk attendant how long it would be until they got news on either Star or Marco, and they always gave the same answer: "I don't know. I'll send a request." Then they typed something on their computer, Eclipsa sat down, and this cycle continued for a few more times. At one point Eclipsa caught a glimpse of the screen, and it appeared to be displaying some kind of card game. She sighed in frustration and walked back over to the bench, where Janna was waiting, indistinguishable from a corpse.

"How long has it been?" Eclipsa asked the corpse look-alike.

Janna's immediate response to this was to look at Eclipsa without even moving her head, someone only moving her right eye while the left one remained still. "I don't know. You were the one who just asked the person at the front desk." She said, Eclipsa's nagging clearly starting to get on her nerves, "But whatever. It's been 2 hours, 30 minutes…and 45 seconds."

"Were you counting the exact number of-"

"Yup."

Eclipsa sighed at Janna's usual apathetic response and attempted to stretch herself out. She could practically feel her bones creaking in the process, as if her body had been standing still for thousands of years, and it was just now taking its first movements. All this despite her constant pacing.

But this feeling was appropriate, considering that it had felt like it had been much longer than that. More than _two hours _had passed since the pair had heard the news about Mina's followers breaking out of prison, and as much as Eclipsa wanted to leave and help out however she could, the current situation required their attention. She and Janna needed Star and Marco for this. They were the ones who knew Mina best. They were the only ones on their side who had found her base before it was burned to the ground. If anyone knew anything about where her followers might be hiding or planning, it would be them. Except for Manfred. But he had skipped town as soon as he could, and nobody could be bothered to try and find him. So Star and Marco were the only option.

Easier said than done however, as there was still no sign of their return. Eclipsa figured that they would have to do this with Marco alone, as Star's injuries would likely require her to stay in the hospital overnight, or perhaps even longer. As for Marco, Eclipsa could just find him and order the doctors to release him. She certainly had the authority, and she was currently wondering why she hadn't done that already. But she knew that those doctors would never release him until the got the information that they wanted. She remembered how they carried him off, the look in their eyes being identical to a person who had just won the lottery.

However, Eclipsa knew that they wouldn't get anything out of those tests. They wouldn't be able to find any proper medical reason for why Marco was brought back. Some of them might assume it was magic, some might think otherwise, but as long they let him go unharmed, then it didn't really matter to Eclipsa. If it was before the end of the day of course.

As for Star, Eclipsa knew that she had to be much more patient. The fact that she had literally been coughing up blood were plain signs that her wounds were life-threatening. Eclipsa was willing to let the doctors take all the time they needed to help her. She quietly shook her head in disappointment thinking about all the time Star had waited until she let herself get medical attention. Star was tougher than most people Eclipsa knew, but she also seemed to be the only one that didn't recognize her own limits. She just kept pushing herself, and Eclipsa figured that one day it would lead to an untimely demise.

Despite all this however, Eclipsa didn't want to waste her precious thinking time on what might soon become inevitable. She was more focused on the present. Other than her endless inner monologues about how she would march right into that hospital room and demand for them to release Marco so she could leave, (in about half of these fantasies she was successful), she had also been thinking about how to deal with the return of Mina's followers, and the bigotry that would surely follow.

Her current plan for them? Negotiation. She didn't want to take any chances. Although they didn't look like much without their leader, Eclipsa knew just how dangerous they could be. Kidnapping Meteora and Mariposa, the assassination attempt which might have _actually _succeeded if not for Bren tipping them off for personal reasons, and their charred plans for the future of a twisted Earthni, found in the burned out remains of the DMV. What was left of them described a monster free Mewni with an almost religious fervor, no doubt written by Mina herself. Although she cringed at the thought of Mina's death, about how painful it must have been to be burned alive like that, Eclipsa was the smallest bit grateful that Mina had been taken care of. Even if it was done in such a horrible manner.

'Jealousy…' She thought. 'That's why Bren killed her, right? He wanted the pleasure of killing us all to himself. I wonder though…did he break Mina's gang out of prison? He definitely has the firepower with Tom and who knows what else on his side, although I don't see any reason why he would do this. Unless, of course, he wants us to be focused on them while he prepares something else that could take us down. I suppose only time will tell at this point, unless he brags about it to our faces. Seems like the kind of thing he would do…'

Eclipsa sighed and sat back down, knowing subconsciously that although her plans sounded good in her head, they had a slim chance of working in reality. People like them, Mina's followers, they didn't listen. They wouldn't back down. They didn't care for words. Eclipsa suspected that the only way to deal with them would be forcefully, and if it had to come to that, then so be it. She was _done _with Bren, _done _with the monster bigotry, and _done _with the constant supply of new questions she had any time they made progress with anything. She just wanted to solve all her problems as quickly and quietly as possible, no matter what she had to do to accomplish that. No matter the cost. No matter the-

'Oh shut up.' She thought to herself. 'Now you're thinking like a tyrant. That's not who you are Eclipsa. You're the queen. You have a family who loves you and friends who care about you. There is no reason to act up. Besides, it's not like Mina's followers will be able to do much anyways. Mina was the real brains behind their operation, even if she was insane. Without her or Manfred leading them, they're nothing but a bunch of mindless drones, wandering around like machines without a purpose. Their hatred towards monsters was and is their singular goal, and we can use that against them. They're stupid. They'll be easy to deal with. The _real _problem to solve here is making sure that the prison can't be broken out of in the future. If this all goes to plan, it might have a new resident very soon…'

Eclipsa paused her inner thoughts to chuckle to herself, amused by the thought of Bren thrown into a prison cell like a common criminal. After all he had done, prison wasn't his forever home if they beat him. That would likely be a gallows.

'But is that really what will happen?' Eclipsa thought. 'Obviously, throwing him in a cell won't work. He's probably planned for that. Mapped out the whole prison in case we ever caught him. Who knows how far he planned ahead. Nevertheless, it won't happen. After that demon attack, both the humans _and _the Mewmans are out for blood. The hatred that was previously directed at monsters is now fixed primarily on him. So what would really happen if we captured him? The Mewmans will want him publicly executed the second we defeat him. The humans will want him tried for his crimes, and _then _executed. As for the monsters, well, they'll just want him locked up. They were always more peaceful than the other two sides. At least nowadays. But either way, this will likely end with him dying. And…...as much as it irks me to say it, or think it really, I'm completely fine with that. Earthni's first criminal execution. Hopefully something we will never have to do again.'

Growing bored of her own thoughts, Eclipsa snapped back to reality and looked around, as if expecting a change in her surroundings. But no. Still the same old, detestable, waste-of-space hospital lobby. Alright. That was it. Time to go get Marco.

Eclipsa got to her feet and headed for the door that led into the main hospital, not caring if anybody tried to stop her. But nobody did, as Janna was now asleep and the front desk attendant was too occupied with their game of solitaire to notice. She pushed open the double doors and entered the now vaguely familiar hallways, noticing that they were filled with hospital staff, unlike before. But they were all the ones that had carried off Star, not Marco. Eclipsa groaned loudly upon realizing that they were likely still testing him. Treating him like some kind of lab rat. Well, no more. They all had more important matters to deal with.

She walked up to a random doctor and stopped in front of them. "Excuse me." She said in the most polite tone she could muster. "Do you happen to know where Marco Diaz is? It's urgent."

"Who?" The doctor said at first. "Oh, you're talking about that kid that was brought back to life. Yeah, they're doing some tests on him. Freaky stuff. I didn't want any part of it."

"Where?" Eclipsa asked.

"I think it was...hallway G, room 12." The doctor said, pointing at the nearby stairwell. "You just go up those stairs, go through the first door, take a right, and then go forward until you see it. By the way, you do have permission to be here, right?"

"I'm the Queen. I don't need permission." Eclipsa said, walking past him. She opened the stairwell door and went up aforementioned stairs until she reached the first door. She opened that one, took a right, and then kept going until she saw what she was looking for. Room 12. Not bother to knock, she twisted the doorknob and threw it open.

Inside was a rather odd scene. Marco was sitting on some kind of giant cushioned hospital bench, with several wires coming out of machines sticking to him via suction cups. He was wearing one of those hospital gowns Eclipsa had seen earlier and looked extremely displeased with the whole situation. As for the rest, they were comprised of the doctors that Eclipsa had seen from earlier, all of them looking like they hadn't blinked in the last two hours.

Eclipsa frowned and cleared her throat, hoping to catch their attention. But they didn't even notice, and wrote what looked like random scribbles on clipboards.

"Excuse me!" She yelled, and everyone turned around to look at her. "I'm sorry about this, but I'm going to need Marco back now. There are some things that have happened, and I'd like his help."

"No can do." One of the doctors said, his right eye twitching. "We still haven't figured out what brought him back. But we think we're close! We just need a couple more hours."

"Oh, that is not happening." Eclipsa muttered. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to allow that. I'd like him back. Right. Now. Please don't make me ask again, I'm short on patience here."

"But we don't know what-"

"He wasn't brought back by science you morons!" She yelled, finally losing her temper. "You're not going to figure anything because those instruments of yours won't be able to detect anything! What revived him is something that you wouldn't be able to understand!"

"Why not?" Someone asked.

"Because-because-because he was brought back by magic!" Eclipsa stuttered. "Those tools of yours can't detect magic. I don't know _exactly _what they're built for, but I know it's not _that_."

"Wait, I thought magic was destroyed." One of the doctors said. "You literally gave an announcement in front of the town hall about how magic existed, and then you destroyed it. Kind of a bummer really."

"This...is a different type of magic." Eclipsa said. "Listen, I'm not going to explain everything to you. Just hand over Marco, and we can end this whole conversation."

"That's not happening." Somebody said. "If magic is what revived him, even if it was a different type of magic, maybe there's still some left in his body. Maybe we can find and harness that!"

"Impossible." Eclipsa said. "Not without the right materials. Which I'm certain you have none of. Please. Hand him over."

"No. Not when we're so close!"

"You're _not_ close, and you're never going to _be _close. Give Marco back his clothes and let him go, or I will-"

"HEY!" Marco yelled, making everybody shut up instantly. "Have you people even considered what I have to say about all of this?"

Nobody spoke, but everybody shifted in place.

"I'm an actual living person." Marco said. "Not some lab rat." He pointed to the doctors. "Not some precious object." He pointed at Eclipsa. "Stop acting like I'm any of those. I played along for those first couple of hours because I knew you would never let me leave at first, and because I knew you would want to run some tests. But if this is what it's come to, then I'm getting the hell out of here whether you like it or not. Screw all of you."

Marco then pulled all the various wires off of him and jumped off the table, shoving two doctors out of his way. He tore the hospital gown off before grabbing his shirt and hoodie and slipping them on. He then pushed past more people and headed for the door.

"Hold on." A doctor said. "You can't just-"

"Yes, I can." Marco said. "There's nothing wrong with me anymore. No reason for me to stay at the hospital.

I was allowing you to examine me by my own free will. However, I don't feel that way anymore. So I'm pretty sure that you forcing me to stay here is illegal. No injuries, no problems. Go heal up Star, and don't expect me to come back anytime soon. Whatever results you got from those tests is all you're going to get."

Marco then looked away from the shocked faces of the doctors and walked past Eclipsa towards the door.

"Let's go." He growled. Eclipsa actually winced at this and then followed him, leaving behind a room of terrified/annoyed/confused medical staff.

Except for one doctor, who started chuckling at the whole situation. "Well...anyone else find that _humerus_?" He joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh, shut the hell up Carl." Another said, saying aloud what everyone was thinking.

Back in the (thankfully) pun-free hallway, Marco was heading back towards the lobby like he owned the place, walking in the middle of the corridor so everyone had to detour around him. Eclipsa followed him at a leisurely pace, trying to spark conversation.

"Um, Marco…" She nervously started. "I'm sorry. I didn't think that-"

"That I was an actual person?" Marco said furiously, finishing the sentence for her. "Listen Eclipsa, I know that shits really hit the fan this time, but I've been through 24 hours of _hell_. The only fun I've had all day was a few brief moments at the beach, which eventually turned into a literal nightmare in which I was systematically beaten, broken, and tortured. Then I was forced to beat Star up, had a panic attack or two while going to the sanctuary, and then I _fucking died. _Slowly. Painfully. Agonizingly. I think I have a right to be in a bad mood right now, because my mental state at the moment can best be compared to a thin layer of ice. And the weight of every single painful thing that's happened to me is resting on top, ready to break through the surface. It's starting to crack. I can already feel it."

"I know." Eclipsa said. "I haven't forgotten about any of that. But something happened recently, and I think you should know about it."

"Yeah?" Marco said, still clearly pissed off. "What needs our attention this time? Bren acting like his usual self? Another giant demon on the loose? Glossaryck came back to life? Tell me, which one is it this tim-"

"Mina's followers broke out of prison!" Eclipsa yelled, growing tired of his attitude. "They broke out this morning."

Marco stopped in his tracks so fast that Eclipsa nearly ran into his back, and he simply stood in place for a moment, thinking. Narrowing his eyes, he turned around and faced Eclipsa, a single question being his only thought at the moment.

"What time?" He asked.

"Um, I don't know." Eclipsa said. "The TV just said early this morning. It never gave an exact time. Why?"

"Just...wondering." Marco answered, before turning back around and walking away like nothing happened. Eclipsa shook her head in confusion and followed him, and soon they got back to the lobby, where they found Janna still snoring away and the desk attendant still playing solitaire.

"Alright, where's Star?" Marco asked. "Haven't they released her yet?"

"It's probably going to be a little while for her Marco." Eclipsa said. "Maybe a day or two. She was in really bad shape. It might take a while for them to fix her up."

Marco moaned in aggravation and took a seat on the nearest bench, far away from Janna as well as everything else. He buried his face in his hands and then threw his head back, trying and failing to relax.

"Who else knows?" He suddenly asked. "Who else knows I died?"

"Well, soon everyone's going to know…" Eclipsa reminded him.

"I remember!" He said. "Who else knows _right now_?"

"Ah. I think just you, me, Janna, Star, and the people in this hospital."

"That's it?"

"Hmmm...wait no." Eclipsa said. "Janna said she texted your mother about the whole situation. She knows as well."

"Wait, texted her before or after I was resurrected?"

"...Before."

"Oh my god." Marco whined. "She still thinks I'm dead. Why-ugh! Dammit! I can't imagine what she's thinking right now."

Eclipsa sighed. "I'm sure she's-"

Eclipsa's attempt at speaking was interrupted when a loud screeching sound was heard, specifically coming from directly outside the hospital. They both recognized it instantly, the sound of tires braking against the pavement after having gone a hundred miles an hour. A few seconds later, the sliding doors to the hospital were practically ripped open, and they were forcefully parted to reveal Angie, tears streaming down her face and looking out of breath.

She would have kept going forward into the hospital, but she froze when she saw Marco, who was equally as surprised to see her. They both stared at one another for a moment, saying and doing nothing.

Eventually, Marco broke the silence, speaking in the most awkward tone anyone had the displeasure of hearing.

"Uhhh...hey mom." He said with a wave. "So, um, that text Janna sent you was _kind of _outdate-"

Angie didn't wait a second more. She rushed forward and hapless her son in a tight hug, lifting him off the ground and cutting off his breathing. His face turned red and he flailed widely, gasping for air. Just before he died for a second time, he managed to push away from her and bent over, hands on his knees and desperately trying to take a breath.

Angie approached him again, but Marco quickly put a hand up and stopped her.

"Wait..." He panted. "Hard...to breath…"

"Oh. Sorry about that." Angie said, her voice shaking while tears streamed down her face. "It's just...I thought you were…and then I called that Uber to get here...but now you're…how?"

"It's a long story." Marco said, finally able to speak properly again. "Actually, not really. But long story short, yes, I did die. But I was brought back to life. Safe and sound."

Angie wiped several tears away and gave him another hug, almost reflexively. Although she was much more careful to give him the chance to breathe this time. Marco didn't even try to stop her. He couldn't imagine what she was feeling. Wait, could he? What was the feeling back at the not-sanctuary with that statue? When he was told he would never see anyone again? Was that what she was-

Before he could come to a conclusion, Angie let go of him again and looked him up and down, continuing to cry.

"Then…...the doctors here brought you back?" She assumed. "That is what happened right?"

"Errrr...no." Marco said. "It's complicated. We don't really know what brought me back at the moment, but Eclipsa and Star have a few theories. But it definitely wasn't the doctors. For one thing, I was dead to long for them to bring me back, and even if I wasn't...they wouldn't have been able to do anything anyways."

"Why not?" Angie asked, a growing look of concern appearing on her face.

"Let's just say that when I was revived, all my injuries were healed." Marco said, not wanting to describe all the horrific wounds he sustained from Bren. "And there were...quite a lot of those."

"Oh you poor-" Angie started, but she was unable to finish her sentence, and pulled Marco in for a _third _hug. Once again, he didn't stop her and returned it graciously.

After a minute or so of that, they let go of each other and Angie sat down on a nearby bench, rubbing her forehead in amazement.

"Anything else I should know?" She asked. "Anything that'll make me want to hug you again?"

"Erm...everything?" Marco guessed. "I mean, I had a mental breakdown or two, performed a failed assassination attempt, _don't ask_, then Bren killed me by beating me to death, and then I was resurrected with no idea of how or who or why. I think every second of the last two hours-no, the last _day _constitutes."

"Ah…" Angie said, using every bit of her willpower to not pull him into another bone crushing hug. "But Marco, I need to know something. Why did you attack Star earlier? She said you were under the control of some being, but I wasn't sure if that was truly the cas-"

"That's exactly what happened." Eclipsa said, stepping in. "Marco was being possessed. His actions over the last few hours have not entirely been his own. He is not to blame."

"Oh thank god." Angie exclaimed. "I was worried sick about that. But will it happen again? Are you going to attack anyone else?"

"No." Marco said. "It's not going to happen again."

"...And how can you be so sure?" Eclipsa asked, suspicion evident in her voice. "We don't know if it's going to occur again. Why are you so positive that it won't?"

"Uhh…" Marco stuttered, but in his mind, he was swearing furiously. He let it slip. He was supposed to keep it all a secret, anything that happened during that talk. He had to play this off somehow.

"I just feel that it won't". He said unconvincingly. "A gut feeling, you know?"

"No, I think I really don't." Eclipsa said. "But even so, we should still watch out. If it happens again, we might not be able to stop you. Star made a comment on how you had super-strength when you fought her. She could hardly even land a hit."

"Yeah, same thing happened to me, only with Bren." Marco said. "Somehow, he was as strong as an ox. Maybe even stronger than that. There was literally no way I could have stood up to him, and unfortunately, I realized that a little too late."

"And that proves my point." Eclipsa said. "If you start acting like a lunatic again Marco, and you start gaining what basically adds up to superpowers, then I'm sorry, but we may have to resort to more...drastic measures."

"Wait, like killing me?! For the second time?!" Marco asked, momentarily forgetting that the whole "acting like a lunatic" was promised to never happen again.

"What?! No! Nothing like that." Eclipsa said frantically. "Trust me, we are not letting that happen again. But at the end of it all, you may be in pretty bad shape. I'm sorry, but if you're as durable as you are strong, then we'll have to do whatever we can to stop you."

"...Okay, that's fair." Marco said. "I don't even know how strong I am when I'm like that. I think I remember lifting up a bed, but there's really no way to tell how-"

"There is." A sudden voice said, and all three of them turned to look at Janna, wide awake.

Marco gaped at her in a mixture of annoyance and surprise, wondering if she had been listening in the whole time.

"Have you been listening in the whole time?" He asked.

"Pretty much." Janna shrugged. "By the way, welcome back to the living world. Mind telling me what you saw on the other side?"

"I didn't see anything." Marco lied. He expected Janna to have more questions for him about that, but she remained silent, so he cleared his throat and asked one of his own. "But what did you say? There's a way to tell how strong I am when I'm going...psycho, I guess?"

"Not just how strong." Janna said, grabbing her crutches and forcing herself up. "How durable you are. Who did this to you. Maybe even why they did it. I may have the answer to that."

"You did mention that earlier…" Eclipsa said, reminiscing on their earlier conversation. "How do we get this answer then?"

"There's this book I have." Janna said. "Tom gave it to me as a gift."

"What? Why?" Marco asked.

"That's none of your business." Janna said, shooting him a sudden death glare. "But as I was saying, I have a book. It contains a bunch of useless crap that I didn't think would ever be useful. Until now. The recent events of today, yesterday, basically the entire past few weeks are described in that book."

"Wait, so it's like some kind of prophecy book?!" Marco asked. "It-it knows what's going to happ-"

"No, not like that!" Janna said. "It doesn't have what's going to happen. But it describes a few _things _that happened. Like Marco's super-strength, Bren's demon and the magic that created it, and the person who might be behind all the terrible crap that's happened to us. It had explanations for all of this. And apparently, that book isn't even from the Underworld. It's from someplace else entirely."

"Where?" Everyone asked simultaneously.

"I don't really know." Janna said, being truthful. "Tom didn't know the official name of the place it came from. Only a nickname or two. Which was "the last of the brother dimensions or something.""

Marco suddenly felt like his body weighed ten times heavier, and a flurry of memories flowed into his mind.

"Sister." He corrected.

Janna looked at him in surprise. "Huh?"

"It's "the last of the sister dimensions," not brother." Marco said. "That's where Tom's book came from."

"How...how did you know that?" Janna asked, actually intrigued by what Marco had to say.

"Because that's where Bren came from." Marco answered, getting a thousand yard stare. "The first time me and Star met him at the sanctuary, we asked him where he was from, and he gave us that answer. The last of the sister dimensions. The last of the parallels. That was exactly what he said."

"But...what does it mean?" Angie asked. "What does "sister dimension" or "parallels" mean exactly?" She turned towards Eclipsa. "Some kind of weird magic term?"

"Don't look at me." Eclipsa said. "I have no idea what either of those are. Janna, do you know anything?"

"Not a clue." Janna admitted. "Also, I didn't read the whole book. It gets _really _annoying to translate after a while. It's so old that half of the pages have faded to dust, and everything else crumbles to pieces so damn easily."

"Well, it's all we've got." Marco said. "Because he didn't say anything else about where he came from."

"At least it confirms he's from another dimension." Eclipsa said. "Although why didn't you tell us this sooner Marco?"

"Me and Star were _planning _to." He said. "At the next council meeting. Which, by the way, is still tomorrow."

"Oh Mewni, don't remind me." Eclipsa said. "But unfortunately, it seems you'll have to explain everything yourself. Star is-"

"In critical condition and has to stay in the hospital for a few more days?" Marco said. "Yeah, you already mentioned that. And I should have seen it coming as well. But you know Star. They won't be able to keep her here for long. Nobody will. Probably not even if _you _order her too Eclipsa."

Eclipsa nodded. "That's the truth, isn't it? You should have seen her. Back when we were waiting on the news of whether you were okay or not." Eclipsa suddenly coughed violently. "She refused to let anybody give her medical attention until she knew you were okay. And when she found out you weren't, she went kind of…berserk."

"I think the fact that she managed to do that at _all _shows that she's in much better condition than she looks." Marco deduced. "I'm sure she'll be fine in a few more hours."

"Marco, she was literally coughing up blood." Eclipsa said. "You saw it. I saw it, and I'm pretty sure that means she far from being "fine". So I'm going to have to disagree with you. It's going to be a while."

Marco sighed. "Should I go visit her? See if she's doing okay?"

"I don't see why not." Eclipsa said. "Although you might have to get permission to see her first. And I'd have to escort you through the hospital, because I wouldn't put it past those doctors to jump you and and test on you again."

"That would be extremely illegal." Janna pointed out. "But yeah, if they think Marco is immortal, and can make other people immortal, than I wouldn't put it past them. Humans have been trying to figure out the secret to immortality for...what, forever?"

"I mean, they swore the Hippocratic oath." Marco said. "I don't think they'll jump me and then forcefully test me just to figure that out."

"Oath or not, you should watch your back." Janna said. "Just a bit of advice."

"I've learned to not follow your advice in the past Janna." Marco said. "But if all of you say so, then okay. I'll watch myself. I just hope they don't tell the local news or the government or anything like that, otherwise I'd be getting hounded on a daily basis."

"I promise I won't let it come to that if they tell anyone." Eclipsa promised. "Not let's go see Star. Janna? Angie? Do you two want to come with us too?"

"I'm good." Janna said. "I know this may sound mean, but she's not dead, so I'm not concerned. If she was, I could tell. And I don't really have anything to say to her.

"Not even going to ask how..." Eclipsa mumbled, before turning to Angie.

"I think I'll come with you." Angie said. "Just to check up on Star. Maybe she'll be happy to see me."

"I hope so." Marco said. "First things first, we should probably try and find out what room she's in." Marco then walked over to the front desk and waited for the attendant to ask him what he needed, but they ignored him entirely and continued to play their game of solitaire, so Marco cleared his throat to get their attention. They make a low humming noise similar to a

silent groan, and looked up from their computer at him.

"Yeah?" They asked, clearly annoyed that Marco had interrupted their game.

"I need to find out the room number where a patient is staying." Marco said, getting straight to the point. "Her name is Star Butterfly."

"You mean the girl who was causing a scene down here a few hours ago?" The attendant said, not posing it as a question. "Give me a second." They typed on their computer for a few moments until a new screen appeared, showing everything the hospital had on Star.

"She's in room 21, A wing." The attendant said. "Was just checked into that room a few hours ago. Said she's in for...serious bodily hard, and apparently they momentarily restrained her to the hospital bed so she couldn't escape. I think they were just removed though."

Marco started to clench his fist at the thought of Star being forcefully tied up, but he cooled himself after realizing that it was probably the best decision. Star _would _have tried to leave if they hadn't made it so she was unable.

"Thank you." Marco said, and then walked back to Eclipsa and Angie. "I know where she is." He said. "Room 21, A wing."

"That's on the second floor." Janna chimed in. "Should be pretty easy to find."

"Thanks." Marco said, and then focused his attention back on the others. "I guess we should just go then?"

"Yes. Let's." Eclipsa said, and the three of them walked back into the hospital, the desk attendant hardly even casting a look at them. Janna made a mental note to get them fired and then looked back at the TV, which still broadcasting news on the prison break. She wondered how they were able to report the same story for over two hours straight, despite there being hardly any information on it. She looked away and then closed her eyes again, not caring enough to let it bother her.

Meanwhile, the trio of Marco, Eclipsa and Angie has just reached the top of the nearest, stairwell, and pushed open a door that led onto the second floor. The exact same as the first, except for what appeared to be an extra bathroom, in plain sight from the stairwell.

Spotting this, Marco was reminded that he hadn't used one in several hours, and decided that he better use it before they continued on. "Excuse me for a second." He said, and then walked over to it and pulled the door open, letting it close behind him. Eclipsa and Angie simply waited patiently, until Eclipsa looked down the hall and spotted someone spying on them from around a corner.

"What the…" She started, but the spy, realizing that she could see them, darted away out of view. Eclipsa grumbled, knowing exactly what this was. One of the doctors from earlier, no doubt looking for an opportunity to snatch Marco. A giant wave of disgust swept over her as she thought about this. These people that had sworn to save the lives of others, and now they were getting closer and closer to kidnapping a teenager.

"Angie, make sure to watch out." She whispered, leaning in close to her. "I just spotted someone spying on us. I think these people still want to do some tests on Marco, to find out if he's immortal or not."

"Uh...is he?" Angie asked. "I'm still in the dark on that whole thing."

"No." Eclipsa said with certainty. "It's something else. I'll explain later if you're any me too, but just watch out for now. If they take and forcefully experiment on him, then I swear that as the Queen I will make sure that every single one of them is fired and that they will never be able to hold a job ever again."

"Quite the promise." Angie said. "Not that I'm complaining. If they do that, you'll have to tear me off them. I'm not letting anything hurt him. Not after what just happened."

"Agreed." Eclipsa said, and a moment later, Marco exited the restroom, still shaking some leftover water off his hands.

"What's wrong?" He asked, noticing their worried expressions. "Oh god, what happened now?"

"Nothing happened. Yet, at least." Eclipsa said. "We're more worried about what _might _happen. We saw somebody spying on us, and I'm pretty sure that they were looking for you. from now on, you're walking between me and your mother."

"Got it." Marco said, quickly accepting this. He'd rather not have to face any more of those tests. And he _definitely _didn't want to see what would happen to him if those doctors took ethics out of the equation. He almost shuddered at the mere thought of it. The earlier tests had been bad enough, but for them to practically kidnap him and tie him down while they experimented on him? Disgusting. He nearly threw up right then and there.

But Marco somehow managed to keep his lunch down, and he along with the others made their way to room 21. Outside the room was one of the hospitals security guards, looking like he'd rather be anywhere than there.

"Hey." Marco said, grabbing the man's attention . "Can we, um, see her? Can we see Star?"

The guard shook his head. "Sorry, I was told that I'm

not allowed to let anybody in here unless the head doctor said so. So unless he himself suddenly shows up and tells me you can go in, then you're going to have to wait."

"What? No." Marco said. "We _have _to see her. A lot of terrible crap just happened, and she really needs to know! I am not just going to leave her there, injured and ignorant!"

"Sorry kid, but neither of us have a choice here." The guard said, shrugging. "If I let you in, I would get thrown out onto the street. And if you try to force your way in, then I'll taze and arrest you. I know it's unfair, but if you have a problem, then you'll have to send a formal complaint."

"How long does it take for a reply to get to us if we send one?" Eclipsa asked.

"Eh, a couple weeks." The guard said. "We get dozens of those things every day. Mostly from people angry about hospital bills, but it's not like I control that either."

"A few weeks?!" Marco said, shocked. "Okay, that's not happening. Eclipsa, tell him to get out of the way."

Eclipsa was about to question this, before realizing once more that she had the authority to basically tell anyone in the entire town what to do. "Um, yes!" She said. "Listen, as Queen, I am ordering you to let us in. If you don't comply, then I will summon the Mewman royal knights, and they will...ta...ta...um, what was the word again Marco?"

"Taze."

"Ah, right. Then I'll send the Mewman Royal knights to taze and then arrest _you_." Eclipsa finished, hoping that this would work. In all honesty, she didn't really have the nervy at the moment to summon the knights just to make this guy move out of the way, and so if he told them to leave, then she would leave, even if she had to drag Marco away.

Luckily, the bluff paid off, and the guard responded with a "Okay." He had seemingly chosen being fired over being tazed by a bunch of drunk, crazed Mewmans. He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door with it. He then pulled it open for them and they all entered, while the guard shut it behind them, regretting ever taking this job offer.

Inside, Marco was nearly heartbroken at the sight he saw. Star's injuries looked bad before, but with all the medical junk surrounding her now, it made it look ten times worse. She wasn't in as bad a shape as Janna was, but it was still terrible to look at, with bandages covering her arms and legs, and several wires hooked up to her, monitoring her heartbeat. (Which, thankfully, was steady.)

"Heyyyy…...Star." He said slowly, making her open her eyes.

"Marco!" She said in excitement, and tried to get up, before remembering that she was hooked up to the wall. "You're here. All of you guys! Well, except for Janna. Where is she?"

"Still in the lobby." Eclipsa said. "She said that since you aren't dead, she isn't really concerned."

"Yeah, I can see her saying that…" Star mumbled, before her eyes landed in Angie. "Hey Mrs. Diaz. How are you doing? How'd you get here? I thought you were back with your car."

"I took an Uber." Angie said. "And I'm doing fine, I suppose, if still not a little confused."

"Do-do you know about the whole part where Marco-"

"Died? Yes, yes I do." Angie said. "And unfortunately, I thought it was permanent, thanks to a text that Janna sent me, until I came here and saw him standing in the lobby, completely fine. In that moment, I had never been more relieved, or more confused, than in my entire life."

"Yeah, it was a shock to us all." Star said. "But a good one! Me and Eclipsa think we know what caused it, and I suppose we can tell you later, but for now, why are you guys up here? Just wanted to check up on me and say hi?"

"That's pretty much it." Marco said. "And you are fine, right?"

"Marco, what did I say earlier?" Star sighed. "Yes, I am fine. All these wires and bandages are overkill. I'm strong! I don't need them! All I need is you."

"Star, there's a difference between being brave, and then just being foolhardy." Eclipsa said. "I know you may disagree, but you do need this. You were throwing up blood earlier, and there's absolutely no way you could have just walked that one off."

"Pft." Star said. "Fine. Whatever you say Eclipsa. But I still plan to get out of here as soon as possible. I assume you have a plan for what we're going to do next?"

"I do." Eclipsa said. "But there's something you should know first. Early this morning, there was a break in at the towns prisons. Among the inmates that escaped are all of Mina's followers."

"A break in?!" Star exclaimed, overwhelmed by what Eclipsa had just told her. "And-and all of Mina's followers escaped?! Oh Mewni, just when I thought we couldn't have any _more _problems. Does this ever end?!"

"I think this _is _the end of it though." Eclipsa said. "I have a feeling that after we defeat them and Bren, it should be smooth sailing."

"Somebody knock on wood." Marco said. "Otherwise we'll have a foreign army on our doorstep the second we take care of those two problems."

"Don't be superstitious Marco. That's not a good mindset to have." Star said. "But yeah, you do have a bit of a point. I don't think anything will be "smooth sailing" Eclipsa. Not even if we defeat Mina's followers and Bren. There's always going to be someone trying to ruin what we've accomplished. The only question is who."

"That's...a fair point." Eclipsa admitted. "But _that _shouldn't be a way to think either. If we all turn into pessimists, then by the end of the day we'll have given up on everything. Seen that it was pointless."

"Given up…" Star said, scratching her chin in thought

like some kind of ancient philosopher. "Hm. I wonder what Bren would do if we told him we were just giving up. He wants us to fight him, to do everything we can to stop his plans, so I wonder what would happen if we just...didn't do that."

Marco looked at her like she was crazy. "You're not thinking about doing that, right?"

"Of course not." Star said, waving him off. "Just a thought."

"I'm pretty sure he would just kill us anyways." Eclipsa concluded. "He's obviously planned this for months, I don't think he'll stop what he's doing if we start acting like we don't care."

Star sighed. "That's true. We can never get what we want, can we? I bet no matter how good a plan we think up, Bren has a counterplan that would undo it in an instant."

"I don't think so." Marco said. "Yeah, it's evident he's planned this for a long time. But he can't expect _everything_. He didn't expect me to beat you up. That was genuine surprise he showed when I told him."

"...Why did you tell him that?" Star asked, disturbed that Marco would share that with Bren.

"He-he sorted of manipulated me." Marco admitted. "And I wasn't in my right mind at the moment."

"Let's hope so." Star said. "I don't even want to know what _else _you told him."

"Not much." Marco said. "But as I was saying, he hasn't expected everything we've thrown at him. He didn't expect me to show up at the sanctuary. He didn't expect me to try and assassinate him right then and there. And I'm betting he _certainly _isn't expecting me to still be alive. I'd love to see the look on his face."

"Oh yeah. Your little assassination attempt. With a towel bar." Star scoffed, ignoring every other thing he just said. "How did that go by the way?"

"Not good." Marco said. "But I did learn something new. Something that may be useful later. Here's how the whole thing went." Marco then cleared his throat and prepared to give a play-by-play. "So Bren turned to leave, growing tired of me, and I basically chucked the bar at him like a spear. I would have gotten him, killed him probably, but Tom reached out and grabbed it."

"What?" Star said, a look of confusion crossing her face. "Why would he do that? If he was about to be free from Bren's control, why would he help him?"

"Because he wouldn't have been free." Marco said. "Bren told me that even if he died, the leverage he had on Tom would still be in effect. Meaning that even if we killed him, Tom, or who or whatever Bren has that's making him do this, would still be in danger."

"Which we still have to figure out by the way." Star said. "We still don't know what he has that's turning Tom into his personal slave."

"I think it's...its...uh…" Marco started, and then stuttered, as if the thought had been washed out his mind. What had that been? Why did he feel like he already knew? He suddenly had a faint memory appear, one of Tom mouthing something to him, but now it seemed more like a dream. What was-

"What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Marco said, looking back at Star.

Star shook her head and sighed. "You were about to say something, but ten you started stuttering, and then you stared into space for like a minute. What was that? Did you have some kind of flashback or something?"

"I mean...maybe?" Marco guessed, unsure of the answer himself. He didn't know if that memory was an actual memory or just some dream, as nowadays he found it difficult to distinguish between the two with all the crazy shit happening around them.

Ah well. It didn't matter now.

"It was nothing." Marco finally said. "Just a lost thought."

"Hm. If you say so." Star said, shrugging. "But now, are you guys gonna get me out of here or what? I can't leave with that guard at the door, so you'll have to tell him that they have to let me leave."

"Star...we can't do that." Eclipsa said, knowing what was best for her. "You can't leave just yet. You're still in terrible shape, covered in bandages, and hooked up to the wall. And you're going to stay like that for quite a while. Look at Janna. It's been a few days since she was sent to the hospital. But almost nothing has changed for her. She's still _months _away from being fully healed. And while your injuries are not as severe as hers, it's still the same deal. It's going to take you a while until you're at one hundred percent again."

Everybody around Star nodded along with this, agreeing with Eclipsa's sentiment. Even Marco agreed. Sure, he wanted Star to be up and about so they could keep being a happy couple, but he knew deep in his heart that she needed rest and time to recover. Putting it off for so long probably only hurt her more, and he hated the idea of her getting hurt.

Star, however, did not agree with this.

"Oh give me a break." She said, waving her hand at them. "How many times have I said it guys? How many times? I. Am. Fine. Unhook from all these machines and we can just walk out of here. Then we can go and beat up Mina's followers, kick Bren's teeth in for he did to _my _Marco…" Star momentarily paused to growl like an angry dog. "And we'll all be happy again!"

"Star, no." Marco said. "You need this. I know you actually feel terrible. I saw you trembling a little when you waved your hand at us. That hurt you. I know it did. You can try and convince all you want, but you can't hide the fact that you're in pain."

"I'm not in any kind of pain!" Star said, shooting up like a rocket before her aching knees forced her to lay back down. She yelped at the sudden affliction and started rubbing her knees, desperately trying to get rid of the pain. "Ow ow ow…" She moaned, before finally realizing her mistake. "That wasn't what it looked like."

"Star, you're usually not this stubborn. I think…" Eclipsa said. "But it doesn't matter. Just please stay her and don't try to leave. For the town. For me. For Marco."

Star was about to try and argue again, but she stopped and thought about what Eclipsa had just said, doing this for Marco and everyone else. Growling internally, she knew she had no choice but to consent to this.

"Fine." She whispered, just barely audible to the three people standing in the room. "I'll stay here. But the second stuff starts going to hell, even more so than it already has, do the same thing you did with Janna and get me out of here Eclipsa. You know all I want to do is help."

"I know." Eclipsa said. "And you will. But not right now. Just stay here and rest."

"Sure. Whatever you say." Star pouted. "Now, this whole conversation is growing kind of boring, so I'd like some time to myself. Just to think."

"Of course." Angie said, before turning to leave. "We should go."

The other two nodded and they all left the room, Marco casting one last glance at Star. She caught his eye and blew him a kiss. Marco grinned widely and blew her one back, and then left and closed the door, happy to at their relationship hadn't been damaged by the recent events.

Once they had all left, Star tugged impatiently on her hospital gown and leaned back in the bed, letting her head hit the pillow. She still thought it was all

A bit much. They didn't need a full bed for her. They didn't need to do all this. And they _definitely _didn't need to dress her in this embarrassing hospital gown. She still remembered the noise she made when they told her to wear it. They practically had to wrestle her into

the damn thing.

Star then sighed and closed her eyes, tired and finally accepting the situation completely. She would have to wait. There was no avoiding it. Marco was okay, the town was safe for now, and she would _eventually _be okay. It had to all turn out well in the end. She could feel it.

And that was the last thought she had before her mind closed _its _eyes and she fell asleep, the only sound in the room now the beeping of the monitor.

**Outside of said room…**

Now already already heading back to the lobby, Marco, Eclipsa and Angie remained silent, happy that Star hadn't tried to leave forcefully. Marco kept his mouth shut for a minute or so more, until he decided that he had to say something.

"So, she seems okay." He said. "At least she didn't try to get up and leave. I don't think I could have forced myself to stop her. She's here because of me after all…"

"Wrong." Eclipsa said. "She's in here because of whatever being possessed you and made you beat her up. You don't have to be guilty, I don't want you to be guilty, because right now, with everything else going on, I don't want to break down crying over something that wasn't your fault."

Marco wasn't sure if that was an attempt to make him feel better or just an order to not feel bad for hurting Star, but either way, it worked. "Okay." He said. "You're right. She isn't mad at me anyways. Nothing had changed. Nothing has changed at all."

"If you're talking about just your relationship with her, then I would agree with you." Eclipsa said. "Unfortunately, we've had a lot of changes recently that don't involve you two. Do you want me to go over them again, or can you remember?"

"...I can remember." Marco whispered.

"Can I chime in?" Angie asked, fully intending to not taking "no" for an answer. "I don't think all these changes are the problem here. Those changes don't mean anything if we don't take out the thing that keeps causing them. We shouldn't worry about new things, just the old thing that keeps coming back to haunt all of you."

"That is a good point." Eclipsa said, agreeing with her. "But these changes still _are_ a problem. The old one, you know who, is just the first one on our list. There are changes out there that we can't every even if we kill him."

"Kill?" Angie said in surprise. "Don't you mean capture?"

Eclipsa paused, unable to meet her gaze. But it was likely one of confusion, and worry. She hoped they would have figured it out that Bren was almost certainly going to die if they captured him, but apparently not.

'They can learn later.' She thought. 'Focus on the now.'

"Yes. Capture." She said, pretending to correct herself. "Even if we _capture _him, there are still things out there that we won't be able to revert. Marco and Star will suffer the scars they received today for the rest of their life. Figurative for Marco, literal for Star. This hospital will never forget the day someone had magically been brought back from death, fully healed of all their wounds. This town will never forget that demon attack, even if we repair all the damage. The mental changes are the ones that will hurt the most. The ones that will never go away."

"Are you sure?" Marco asked. "If people want to forget that something happened, they may block it out from their mind entirely. I bet that in ten years from now, there's going to be a dozen people walking around town, with no memory of a demon attack, simply because they didn't want to remember."

"I'm not sure that's how memory works." Angie said. "But he does have a point Eclipsa. Even the mental scars will fade."

"But it'll still take too long." Eclipsa said. "That's a fact of life at this point. How many people had their lives decimated in that demon attack? All the damage to property, homes, shops...it's too much. What do you think would have happened if there were _people _in town at the time? If Brudo hadn't had that pay off all your taxes day? So many would have died. And we never would have gotten back to normal."

"You're thinking about what could have happened." Marco said. "Not what _did _happen. I've learned it's not a good idea to try and do both. And I think it's obvious which of the two is the most favorable."

"Perhaps." Eclipsa said. "But I can't stop thinking about it that way. I even told myself that earlier. Think about what's happening, not what did happen. But I couldn't resist. I'm the Queen. I have to think about stuff like that so that if it happens again, and it happens a different way, I can be ready to respond appropriately."

Marco paused and then nodded. "I suppose with a position like that, you can't really afford to just look to the future. But uh, do you have an idea about what we would have done if people were in the town during the demon attack? I'm kind of curious."

"It would be mostly the same." Eclipsa said. "Taking the thing down, that is. The backlash would have been far would severe however. No simple speech, not even the one that Star did this morning, would calm them down. They would blame us for not stopping it sooner, and then we would be ripped into bloody bits. All because we couldn't stop it in time. Which reminds me, you still owe us an explanation about the sanctuary and what exactly it is. Star told us it was some kind of church, or-"

"That's exactly what it is." Marco said. "And I feel like you already asked this question before. And we already gave you an answer. So either my memories are on the fritz, or yours are."

"I don't think it matters who's memories are on the fritz." Angie said. "I don't think Marco and Star not telling you about the sanctuary matters at all right now Eclipsa."

"I...yes. You're right." Eclipsa said. "On our list of problems, that one is at the very bottom. Right now, we're going back to the lobby and Janna will show us that book that contains information about why this is all happening and preventing Marco from turning feral again."

"Please don't call it that." Marco said, almost in a begging tone. "But shouldn't we be focusing on taking down Mina's followers first? I feel like they're the main problem as of right now

"No." Eclipsa said. "I'm tackling the problem that I see as the most threatening one. Those followers are disorganized morons without Mina. I doubt they're even a full group right now. So I don't consider them much of a threat. You on the other hand…" She looked over at Marco. "That little part where you get superpowers after being possessed is a gigantic threat. Bren is as well. This book should explain both of those threats, and hopefully will outline a way to defeat them. You won't ever go feral again, and Bren will be taken care of."

After hearing this, one of half of Marco just wanted to scream the truth at Eclipsa, telling her that he would never be possessed again. He didn't want to them to worry about it, but that wasn't his choice. If he told them, bad things would happen. And then it would be in his hands. But as for the other half, it just wanted to yell at her for calling his possessed state "feral" for the second time in a row.

It would have to be option two. Although he made sure to not include the yelling part.

"_Please _don't call it going feral again." Marco said. "That's the second time."

"Sorry." Eclipsa said, smiling slightly for the first time in hours. "I just thought of it, and it fits so well. So excuse me if I use it for a third."

"Don't expect me too." Marco said. "Doesn't matter though. So are we going to Janna's house now? Looking through that book?"

"That's exactly right." Eclipsa said. "We'll take my car and go there, all four of us. Unless...Angie, do you want to come?"

"Depends. Does the inside of your car have Marco's blood in it?" Angie asked. This led to a short but awkward silence, and it was plain to see that Eclipsa didn't want to answer that.

"...There's probably a few stains in the back seat." She finally admitted, her voice almost shaking as the words came out.

"Then no." Angie said. "I'd rather not see that. Besides, I have to get back to my car. It's probably been towed already, and even if it hasn't, I still need to move it."

"I understand completely." Eclipsa said, knowing how she would feel about climbing into a car with Meteora's blood covering the inside. She almost shed a tear at the mere thought of it. "I suppose we'll see you later then? We could use your help incase If Marco ever goes fer-I mean, if Marco ever gets possessed again."

"Nice save." Marco muttered.

"Of course." Angie said, before turning her attention towards her son. "Marco, once you guys finish reading that book of yours, can you come home? I think you need to take some time to relax."

"Tempting as that is, I'm fine." Marco said, mirroring Star's words. "I know a lot of crazy stuff has happened to me, but I'm at 100 percent capacity right now. Never better. I-"

"Marco, I can see the bags under your eyes. I could see you shaking anytime Eclipsa mentioned you being possessed." Angie said in a motherly tone. "I'm saying the same thing to you that we said to Star. You're not fine. Both of you need some time off from having to fight all these battles."

Marco was about to argue against this, but he knew she was right. In actuality, he just wanted to just kick back and do nothing for the next week and a half. Like some kind of reward for making it through all the insane stuff that happened to him since this morning.

"Okay." He said. "You're right. I need to chill. After the book thing, let's go back home. Eclipsa, do you think you could-"

"Of course." Eclipsa said. "I'll take you back to your house later. And your mother is right, like you said. You deserve to take some time off. Next time there's a problem, I promise that we won't come scrambling to you or Star, and I'll send the knights instead."

"Does this mean I won't have to come to the meeting of the Mewnian high council tomorrow?" Marco asked, hopeful.

"...No." Eclipsa said. "They need answers. We all do. Relax a little today, and then you can have the rest of the day off tomorrow after the meeting. Get a good night's sleep as well. No matter what happens, I promise you won't have to deal with it."

"Let's hope…" Marco whispered, knowing full well that something was bound to those that _would _require his attention. Life was just like that nowadays.

The three of them continued in silence until they got back to the lobby, where Janna was still waiting for them. She was over at the front desk, looking over the top of their computer to watch them play solitaire. The receptionist was obviously annoyed by this, but having encounter Janna during _her _stay in the hospital, she knew it was pointless to try and tell her to leave.

"Janna. We're leaving." Marco announced. "We're going to your house to check out that book of yours."

"Alright." Janna said, before looking up at the receptionist. "You're the worst solitaire player I've ever seen." She then walked away, leaving them both dumbfounded and insulted.

"Are we all getting in Eclipsa's car?" She asked. "I mean, that thing probably still had pieces of Marco hanging around inside it…"

"That's an over exaggeration." Eclipsa said, before leaning in towards Janna and speaking with a whisper. "And please don't say things like that. You really think his mother is going to want to hear that?"

"...Sorry." Janna whispered back, before heading for the door so she could leave. Marco watched her go and then turned to Angie.

"Thanks for being here for me and Star mom." He said. "I know how hard and confusing this has to be for you, as well as-"

"Marco, it's okay." Angie said. "You don't have to say anything, I already knowing the meaning behind those words."

"Oh." Marco said, taken aback. "I'll...see you back at home then?"

"I'll be waiting for you." Angie responded, before giving him a quick hug and then leaving as well. 'That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.' She thought. 'But it'll all be worth it once he and Rafael come home. We should do something as a family tonight. Maybe I should ask Rafael if he...oh. Right. I still have no idea where he is. Well, I guess I'll just call him again. And if that doesn't work, then I'll check around town as many times as I need to."

Back in the lobby, Marco watched his mother leave and sighed. "She's really suffering." He said. "I could hear it in her voice. I just hope she's okay. I don't want her to worry about me anymore than she needs to."

"She seems to be doing pretty well, considering." Eclipsa said. "But she needs to worry about you Marco. We all do. Possession, remember?"

"I'm never getting possessed again." Marco said under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Marco said. "And yeah, still remember. I remember all of it. Trust me, that's something I'm not going to forget." He got a faraway look in his eyes. "Not until the day I die…...again."

"Glad to hear it." Eclipsa said. Now let's get a move in, Janna must be bored out of her mind right now."

Marco nodded and the two left the lobby and went straight for Eclipsa's car. Janna was waiting outside it looking displeased for some reason.

"I just checked the back seat." She said. "And there is a _lot_ more blood than I thought there would be. So, we have to decide who's sitting back there, unless one of you want to ride on the roof."

"Well, I have to drive the thing." Eclipsa said. "So you and Marco will have to decide."

Janna then glanced over at Marco, who now looked equally displeased. He knew this was coming ever since his mother had asked that question earlier, and had been dreading it for that entire time. On one hand, it was _his _blood, so he really wasn't as gross and weird as he thought it out to be. But on the other...he didn't want to.

Janna, however, seemed to be a lot more okay with it. This wouldn't have been the weirdest thing she had ever done. Heck, it wouldn't even be in the top ten. She had touched Marco's blood before, when she was filling up that vial that helped get rid of Bren's demon. This wasn't odd to her. It wasn't disgusting. But just like Marco, she still didn't want to. It was still the blood of her friend back there, while he had been _dying, _and even if it was dried, it didn't feel right. But she knew that Marco would never want to sit back there, so she had no choice.

"Okay." She said. "I'll take the-"

"I'll take the back seat." Marco said, and before Janna had a chance to respond, he clambered in and sat down. Although he scooted as far away from the dried blood stains as possible, he didn't overdo it. He knew he couldn't let Janna sit back there. It was _his _blood, not Janna's. It wouldn't be appropriate to force her to sit there and probably suffer in silence.

Outside the car, Janna was simply shocked hat Marco had willingly gone in there. She was literally just about to say that she had taken the back seat. But if he wanted it, then she wasn't complaining. She shrugged, opened the passenger side door, and carefully set her crutches down in front of her before buckling herself up.

"Are you two finally ready?" Eclipsa asked. "Because when I looked outside, the look on each of your faces made me think that your heads were about to explode."

"Just had to make some tough choices." Marco said. "It's fine though."

"Yeah. Totally." Janna said in response. "Now can we go? If I don't feed the colony of cockroaches that lives in my closet before five, they're going to get cranky."

A normal person would have questioned why Janna had a "colony of cockroaches" living in her closet, But Maroc and Eclipsa had been around her long enough to expect that sort of response from her

"Yeah. We're going…" Eclipsa said, and she turned on the car and left the hospital parking lot. None of them looked back as they drove away, happy to finally leave that place behind.

None of them spoke either. Not a single sound from any of them. Maybe just how traumatic the day events had been was finally being realized. All of them would remember this day. Marco more the others, but still, today had been torturous from start to finish. Literally for one of them. So they remained silent, afraid that if they opened their mouths, then they would never be able to stop talking. Talking about what had happened to them and how much it sucked. It had been the worst day in a long time.

As they drove along, Eclipsa already seemed to know where she was going, leading Marco to believe she had gone to Janna's house before. That or Janna had told her earlier and he just wasn't there for it. But it didn't matter either way. He leaned over and pressed the side of his head against the car window, not really looking out of it but instead looking at nothing. In that moment, he felt nothing. He thought he would still be worried. Worried about what that god had said and about Bren, but he wasn't. He was literally too tired to care about anything.

'Maybe I shouldn't even be doing this.' He thought to himself. 'I should really ask Eclipsa to take me home right now so I can relax. I'm sure she'd be more than happy to do that for me.'

Something that had the semblance of a smile crept over Marco's face as he thought about being alone, with no bren, no torture dreams, no nothing. Just him alone at his house. Maybe making some nachos, practicing his karate, and being himself for once.

But he couldn't. And he knew that. He had to see today out to the end. He had to go to Janna's house and read that stupid little book. He...had too. His only response to these thoughts was a gigantic sigh that swept over his whole body. He accepted his sad fate and stretched his legs out in an attempt to get comfortable. He had to make the best of a bad situation. It was the only thing left to do.

After a few more minutes of silence and swerving, Eclipsa pulled up next to Janna's house and parked right next to a mailbox. Everybody climbed out without saying a word and headed for the door. They all knew what they were here for. No need for them to speak about it.

They all entered and saw Janna's parents sitting on the couch, and Janna gave them a small wave.

"Hey." She said. "This are my friends Marco and Eclipsa. I'm gonna show them something in my room? Is that okay?"

Both of her parents gave her a thumbs up and went back to the books they were reading, unconcerned with anything. Janna nodded after Eclipsa and Marco and the two followed her up her staircase, before turning a corner and entering her room.

It was the same as when Marco last saw it. Weird things. Weird statues. Weird everything. None of them seemed fazed by it. Janna walked over to her bed and pulled out a book the size of a briefcase out from under it, set it on a nearby desk, and they all crowded around to look.

"Okay." Janna said, flipping the gigantic book open to a new page, written in a language only she understood.

"So, according to this book, there's this sort of deity. The god we talked about earlier. A god of-"

"Of flame." Marco said, remembering his earlier encounter with the being. "We talked about it earlier."

Janna looked at him in surprise. "Oh yeah. Must have been a fun conversation. But anyways, this god encompasses everything flame-realized. Fire, ash, heat, coal, the whole thing. But while is a god, it's apparently on the weaker side of the scale. Which meant that it usually doesn't take matters into its own hands, but had others do it for them."

"Others like Bren." Marco seethed. "Was he sent by this fire god to kill us?"

"I'm getting there." Janna said. "So in order to make sure it's servants had a better chance of doing whatever they were supposed to do, this God grants them abilities."

"With demon magic." Eclipsa chimed in. "All of this was made possible with that twisted form of magic."

"I wouldn't say twisted." Janna said. "More like misunderstood. But you're right. It gave them their abilities with demon magic. Bren's abilities, Marco's abilities, all of it."

"What kind of abilities does it grant them?" Marco asked. "I know there's already a few we know about, but are there any others?"

"Well...it says it gives them enhanced strength, durability, reflexes, and...pyrokinesis." Janna said nervously. "Although I guess we haven't seen Bren do that last yet, so he may be hiding it from us, or he just doesn't have it for some reason. Then again, you never did it either Marco. Star had no burn marks on her. So you obviously never used or even had that ability."

"Or I did, and I just didn't know." Marco pointed out. "But I do remember that Bren never used that ability in our fight. So maybe he doesn't have it like you said, or he just didn't want too and felt satisfied beating me up with his bare hands."

"Let's hope it's the former." Eclipsa said. "Now, can anything hurt people who have been given this power?" She asked. "Something has to be able to."

"According to the book," Janna said, practically whispering. "The person who's granted the gods power has their skin become as "hard as iron." But I think that's just an exaggeration. He's tough, but he's not like, you know, bulletproof or anything close to that."

"Let's hope so…" Marco said. "Would something like a sword hurt him?"

"Enough hits probably would." Janna said. "It would have to be a good sword though. Especially since he's strong and fast enough that he could easily catch the blade."

"How strong?" Eclipsa asked.

Janna took a deep breath. "He could bench press a dozen school buses."

"WHAT?!" Everybody else in the room said, (all two of them) shocked beyond belief.

Janna stared at them for a few moments, then burst out laughing. "You should have seen the looks on your faces!" She said. "A dozen school buses...yeah, _nobody _is that strong."

"This is not really the time for jokes Janna." Marco said. "You literally had me thinking that he would be unbeatable for a second there."

"Just trying to lighten the mood, jeez. Appreciate the fact that I don't make jokes often, much less laugh." She shook her head in disappointment. "But in all seriousness, he's strong enough that he could beat anyone in one-on-one combat. Not to mention his reflexes were also enhanced. So taking him on directly would not be a good idea, as we saw in his fight with Marco."

"Noted." Eclipsa said. "So why is he doing this? Like Marco asked, did this god of fire tell Bren to kill us all?"

"I don't think so." Janna said. "The book says that the God of fire grants abilities to people who are on quests of their own. Whatever reason Bren is doing this for, it's personal. The God of fire is just helping him along the way for its own reasons."

"But I'm not in any sort of quest." Marco said. "It never contacted me before taking over my body. It only tortured me in some giant arena in my dream!" He then quickly added, "If they were the same person, of course."

"Oh yeah." Janna said. "That torture dream of yours. Star told us a little bit, but never the whole thing. I'd ask you, but I feel like you wouldn't be comfortable talking about it."

"Thank you for taking that into consideration." Marco mumbled. "And yes. I would not be comfortable."

"Going back to the main topic, what do we do now?" Eclipsa asked.

"Well." Janna said. "I think the best thing we could do is-"

Janna was suddenly interrupted by the sound of her bedroom door swing open, and everyone present turned to look at Janna's father, standing in the doorway and holding a phone in his hand.

"Hey." He said. "You friend Marco's mother is on the phone. Said she needs to tell him something".

"Thanks dad." Janna said, and she took the phone away from him. Her father gave her a quick nod, she nodded back, and that was that. He left and Ianna closed the door behind him, locking it after the fact so nobody else could barge in.

"Here." She said, handing the phone to Marco. Marco gingerly plucked it out of her hands and held it up to his ear.

"Hello?" He said, expecting trouble.

"Marco…" It was his mother's voice. But at the same time, not one he heard very often. It sounded scared. Fearful. Worried. Marco took notice of her terrified tone almost instantly and responded in kind.

"What happened?" He asked frantically. "Is everything alright?"

"No." Angie said. "Marco...it's your father."

**End chapter 17**

**A/N: Just in case anyone is wondering, no. Rafael is not dead. But he's not in a good place either, as the next chapter will show.**

**This chapter was also shorter than the ones I've been doing recently, and it might stay around this length, due to school being a pain and other projects I'm working on. Hope everyone understands.**

**Until next time.**


	18. Chapter 18: The epitome of stupidity

**Aflame **

**Chapter 18**

**The epitome of stupidity **

Never had there been a more silent room in the entirety of the multiverse.

Never had a situation been so tense yet so close to disaster.

Never had it been so quiet, that if one listened closely, they could hear other people's heartbeats. No place in all of Earthni's (relatively) short history could share that description.

Until, of course, right now. And this historical moment took place at none other than the bedroom of one Janna Ordania.

"Marco?" Angie asked, her voice sounding like thunder in the silent room. "Honey, are you still there? Listen, please don't freak out, I need you-"

"I'm coming home." Marco said, his fingers tightening around the phone.

"Marco-"

"_I'm coming home." _He repeated, and he ended the call. Putting on a face that was devoid of emotion, he threw the phone at Janna and headed for the door.

"Marco, wait!" Eclipsa said. "We still have to-"

Marco stopped in his tracks and turned around to give her a death glare.

"Don't try and stop me." He said, wearing a sneer that looked like he had spent several hours perfecting it. "If something happened to my dad, _just like _I was suspecting all this time, then I have to know. I'm going home, my mom is going to tell me what happened, and I don't care what you have to say about it."

"If you wanted to know, she probably would have just told you _while _you were the phone." Janna said, closing the demon book and setting it aside.

Marco paused for a moment and thought that over. After a few seconds of careful contemplation, he realized that Janna was right. He shouldn't have hung up like that. But at the same time, he didn't care who was right and who was wrong in this situation. He just needed to get home. He responded with a scoff and shoved Janna's door open before leaving.

The two people left in the room silently contemplated what their next move would be. For Janna, she knew that this might blow over and or it might not. Either way, she didn't want any part in what happened next. She had a feeling that it was going to end badly. But that wasn't what Eclipsa was thinking. She wasn't going to stand by whole Marco did something rash and get himself killed _again._ She had to do something.

"I'm going to go get him." She told Janna. "Judging by the look on your face, I assume you're staying here?"

"Yeah." Janna said, confused because she hadn't changed her expression in the last ten minutes. "Good luck. If you need me at that meeting tomorrow, I'll be there. But I think I'm going to relax as best I can until that hospital leave you gave me wears out. I don't even know why they still want me back. I think it's obvious at this point that I'm fully capable of getting around without hurting myself."

Eclipsa nodded. "I'll see if I can get you a longer one. I'll call you later about the meeting." With that, she left and Janna was now alone, standing in silence. She sighed, put the book back under her bed, tossed her crutches aside and flopped onto a beanbag chair she had recently bought. She grabbed her laptop from a nearby stool and opened it up.

"Now, let's see what I can do to get that desk attendant fired…."

**Downstairs…**

Marco nearly leaped down the stairs as he made a beeline for Janna's front door, not caring whether he injured himself or not. He reached the door and flung it open as hard as he could, almost ripping it off its hinges in the process. Stepping outside, he slammed the door behind him and made his way towards the sidewalk, determined to let nothing stop him from getting home.

This feeling did not last however, as he heard the door open again from behind him. He didn't even have to turn around to know who it was. The sound of the door being gently closed rang in his ears and he slowed his pace.

"Don't try and stop me Eclipsa." He growled, getting to the end of the Ordania's walkway and moving into the sidewalk. "I'm not going to."

"That's not why I followed you." Eclipsa said, who was now walking behind him. "I'm not going to stop you from going home, but I _will _stop you if you start making rash or stupid decisions. You're too consumed by anger and anxiety right now Marco. I'm sure your father is fine, so please just-"

"Oh, is that so?" Marco yelled. "Because the tone my mom was using was a pretty clear indication that he wasn't! And I'm not going to make any stupid decisions. I'm thinking clearly. I'm fine." He claimed, his left eye twitching. "I'm okay. Even if it doesn't look like it."

"You're _not _thinking clearly, and you're _not _okay." Eclipsa said. "If you were, you wouldn't have just stormed out of the house like that and nearly broken the Ordania's door in the process. You're not you right now. You're not acting like the Marco I know."

"Are you suggesting-"

"No, I don't think you're possessed again." Eclipsa said. "But this is behavior is completely inconsiderate of you. I know how hard today has been. I've been reminded of it several times. But if you let the days event control you, then it might happen all over again."

"This will never happen again…" Marco muttered.

"What did you say?" Eclipsa asked. "I didn't hear-"

"This will _never _happen again." Marco repeated. "Today was just the result of one bad thing happening after the other. All of it because of that fire-god."

"Yes!" Eclipsa exclaimed. "And if you act like this, if you make yourself _vulnerable_, then it will come back and take ahold of you again!"

"It won't!"

"How can you be so sure?" Eclipsa asked, quickening her pace to catch up with him.

"Because he told me himself! He literally said he wouldn't take control of me again!" Marco screamed, before realizing his mistake. He clasped a hand over his mouth, but it was already too late. The secret was out. He shut his eyes and braced himself for the pain that was sure to come. What was about to happen? Would a bolt of lightning would strike him? Would he spontaneously combust? Maybe even get a random heart attack? He didn't know, but what he did know was that it was over. He let his arms fall to his side and his body tensed up, preparing itself for the end.

Nothing happened.

So he opened his eyes and waited a few moments more.

And still nothing happened.

"What the hell?" He mumbled, confused as to why he was still alive. "Shouldn't I be dead by now? Or at least suffering some kind of consequences?"

Before any of these questions could be answered, he saw a shadow fall over him. He turned around and saw Eclipsa standing there, a look in her eyes that held compassion.

"Normally, yes." She said. "But I don't think what you just said was enough for them to strike you down."

"What are you-"

"Marco, I know you had a meeting with the fire-god after you died. I know you two talked and he brought you back afterwards. And I know that you were under orders to never tell anyone about what happened there." Eclipsa put a hand on his shoulder, one of reassurance. "And I'm sure that for you to be struck down on the spot, you might have to be a little more descriptive than _that."_

Despite Eclipsa's attempt to calm him down, Marco still winced, expecting her to blow up at him a moment later. But she didn't. She stood there, her hand still on his shoulder, letting him know that she held no animosity towards him for not telling her the truth.

"I understand." Eclipsa said. "You were afraid. I don't blame you at all for lying. I'm not angry at you because of it. In fact, I'm grateful. If you had told the truth, then we would all be dead now, wouldn't we?" She chuckled. "I know it's not something to laugh at, but I don't want you to think you're in any kind of trouble. Any reasonable person would have done the same Marco."

Marco took all this in and then looked at the ground, his eyes darting to the side in shame. "I should have told the truth." He said. "I should tell you everything it told me. There was so much stuff that could be useful, so much that we could-"

"Please don't." Eclipsa pleaded. "You know you can't do that. I'd die, and then you'd die _again_. And I'm sure that when you meet the fire god for the second time, he won't be happy to see you."

Marco shuddered, thinking of all the torture that at the god had inflicted on him back in his nightmare at the beach. He suddenly got a vision of the nightmare happening again…and again…and again forever. An endless cycle of torture that only ended when the universe burned itself out. He wasn't sure if this vision was being put into his head by the fire god _right now_, or if it was all him.

And he didn't want to know the answer to that.

"Okay." He said. "It did tell me to just try and forget it. Forget all of it."

"Then that's what you should do." Eclipsa recommended. "Don't think about the conversation you had, don't talk about it, _not even to yourself_, and especially don't write down what happened. If some unfortunate person found that piece of paper, what do you think would happen?"

"They'd die." Marco said, already knowing the answer.

"That's right." Eclipsa said. "Try and forget about it Marco. There are some things that just shouldn't be remembered."

Marco nodded, and Eclipsa saw that she had gotten through. She took her hand off his shoulder and looked him in the eye.

"Do you want me to drive you home?" She asked. "It's quite a walk from here to your house".

"Yeah." Marco breathed, finally accepting some help. "That'd be nice."

"Then go wait by my car, because I have to go fetch my keys. I believe I left them inside, since I was in kind of a rush to get out of there."

Eclipsa then turned around and walked back towards the Ordania's house, with Marco following her in tow. He shuffled over to her car, opened the passenger side door and climbed in, while Eclipsa headed back inside and went up the stairs to Janna's room.

She pushed open the door and saw Janna sitting on her bean bag chair, typing furiously on her computer. She hardly even looked up at Eclipsa, and grabbed a pile of freshly written notes that were by her side. She scanned them with all the speed of a giant demon attacking a town, then set them back down and kept typing.

Eclipsa decided that whatever Janna was doing, it would be best not to interrupt. She spotted her keys on a nearby dresser and grabbed them, wondering why she had even taken them out of her pocket in the first place. Although it _was _Janna, so it was entirely possible that she had swiped them earlier.

Before these thoughts could escalate further, Eclipsa shoved the keys in her pocket and left, honestly not caring why she had taken them out or why they were sitting on the dresser. She took the stairs two at a time and entered the foyer. Janna's parents were still unperturbed in any way by her presence, something which Eclipsa found both fascinating and unsettling.

Unwilling to stay in the creep house any longer, she quickly exited and gently shut the door behind her. She speed-walked to her car and pulled open the driver's side door, where she saw Marco in the seat opposite to her, looking even more morose than usual.

"Are you okay?" She asked, immediately taking note of his demeanor. "You look down. Did something happen in the five seconds that it took me to grab my keys?"

"No." Marco answered. "I'm just still worried about my dad. About what Bren might have done with him."

"Bren didn't do _anything._" Eclipsa said. "He was busy...dealing with you when your father disappeared."

"You mean murdering me?" Marco said, rolling his eyes. "And no, he wasn't. My dad disappeared after Star's speech, which was _hours _before I fought him. He had plenty of time to do something with my dad and then kill me."

"Did he tell you anything himself?" Eclipsa asked. "About your father?"

"Back at the sanctuary, I accused him of kidnapping him." Marco said, leaning his head against the car window. "But he denied it, and of course I didn't believe him."

"I still don't think he had anything to do with what's going on. We don't know what's actually going on. You hung up on Angie before she could tell you."

"It doesn't matter. If something bad happened to him, then Bren obviously-"

"_**Where's my dad? Did Bren really take him or is it something else?"**_

"_**Bren did not take your father. He told you this himself, if I remember correctly. He was in no way directly responsible for his disappearance."**_

"_**Thank god…"**_

Marco suddenly stopped dead, a sudden flashback of a previous conversation playing in his head like a video on loop. But it didn't feel like a flashback. It felt more comparable to a memory that had forced its way into his mind, almost like a tumor that was eating his brain from the inside. The loop started to go faster and became hellishly distorted, and it brought with it an explosion of pain that felt like his skull was trying to force its way out of his head.

"I…" He stuttered, any form of coherence slowly failing. "I...stop…"

"Stop?" Eclipsa asked, unaware as to what was going on. "Stop wha-" She said this the exact second she turned to her right and glanced over at Marco, his skin deathly pale and his nose bleeding like he was having an aneurysm.

"Oh my god! Marco!" She yelled, instantly freaking out and grabbing him by the shoulders. "What's happening? Can you hear me?"

"N...no…ple...ase...Help...me…" He whimpered, his head feeling like it was going to explode. Both of his nostrils started pouring blood like a waterfall, and Eclipsa decided that enough was enough. She reared her hand back and slapped him, knowing that he was under some kind of beguilement. Slapping someone always seemed to work with these kind of things.

The second she did this however, Marco gasped and start hyperventilating like he was having a panic attack. Eclipsa started getting terrified for him as she realized that her slap only made it worse.

Then he screamed.

It was a primal, Earthni-shattering scream so loud that Eclipsa almost covered her ears in response. It was one of terror, fear, and pain. Eclipsa wouldn't have been surprised if half the town was hearing this. It was one of the worst sounds she ever heard, and it alone made her wonder if she should even continue helping Marco, lest the same thing that was happening to him pass on to her.

"GET OUT!" He screeched, finally managing to form some words. "GET OUT! YOU PROMISED! YOUR SAID YOU WOULDN'T...wouldn't…"

Marco then start screaming incomprehensibly again and fumbled with his seatbelt, unbuckling it in an instant. He threw open the car door and attempted to run, but the seatbelt caught his ankle and yanked his feet out from under him. He twisted around and tried to grab the door, but it was too late, and he fell flat on his back as his head hit the driveway with a loud CRACK.

And then all went quiet.

No more screaming. No more hyperventilating. Even his nose seemed to have stopped it's bleeding. He lay there on the ground, unconscious.

Eclipsa was so shocked she could barely even move for a few seconds. She had no idea what had just happened or if Marco was even still-

"GET OUT!" Marco yelled, shooting up without warning. Eclipsa nearly hit her head on the car ceiling from shock as Marco jumped up and looked around him frantically, like a person who had just escaped a serial killer. Once he spotted Eclipsa, his breathing slowed somewhat but still remained at a pace that sounded like he had finished a marathon.

"Did you hear that?" He asked her, his eyes darting all over the place. "Did you hear it?"

"What? I...no." Eclipsa said, having difficulty finding the right words. "But what happened there? Are you okay?"

Marco rubbed the back of his head and struggled to remember. His face then went deadpan and his posture sank as the memories came flooding back all at once.

"I was wrong." He said, wiping his blood soaked nose with his sleeve. "Bren didn't do anything with my father."

"Wait, but a minute ago you were sure that-"

"Not anymore." He said, climbing back into the car. He sat down, put his seatbelt on again and closed the car door like nothing had happened.

"M-Marco?" Eclipsa said, genuinely shook up inside. "Are you okay?" She repeated. "I need you to tell me what happened to you there."

"What did happen to me?" Marco asked, still devoid of emotion.

"You...started stuttering something." Eclipsa answered. "Then you got a nosebleed, I slapped you to knock you out of it-"

"You what?"

"I-I couldn't think of anything else to do in the moment." Eclipsa said, answering truthfully. "But then you started hyperventilating and screaming like your soul was being ripped out of your body."

"That's what it sure felt like." Marco said. "That or my entire skeleton being doused in gasoline and then set on fire. All the while somebody was speaking to me, trying to tell me things that I should have figured out from the beginning."

"Err...right." Eclipsa agreed. "So after that, you tried to run out of the car, but the seatbelt hooked around your ankle, you hit your head on the ground annnnnd...you knocked yourself out."

"Is that why the back of my head hurts?" Marco asked. "Because it feels like someone hit it with a hammer."

Eclipsa sighed and paused for a moment, unsure as to where she should take this next. Marco clearly still wasn't in his right mind, judging by how Eclipsa felt like

she was talking to a robot. And after all he had been through today, whatever that screaming session had been was just another thing to add to the ever expanding list of Marco's tortures. If would be in everyone's best interest to just leave it alone and not interfere, for fear of making it worse.

But then again, it's not like she could ignore it. That would be even more foolish than doing nothing, and she had to get as much out of him about this experience as she could.

"What did you hear?" She asked. "You said someone was trying to tell you things that-"

"I don't care. You shouldn't either. Now Take. Me. Home." Marco demanded, curling up into a fetal position on his seat.

"But-"

"_Please." _He breathed, sounding like he was a second away from crying.

Eclipsa gulped and decided that she should do as he asked. Whatever this was could wait for later when he was feeling better. She had half a mind to exempt him from the meeting tomorrow or to just call it off entirely, as she felt like it would take more than a good night's sleep for Marco to recover from today.

She nodded in response and turned the car on, and it came to life. She rolled out of the Ordania's driveway and started heading down the road to the Diazes house, while Marco sat quietly, looking like he could just wish it all away.

'Poor Marco.' Eclipsa thought, keeping a careful eye on him. 'At this point, I'm wondering how he's even still sane. If what Star told me is correct, he had already been through hell on Earth even before he died. Then he talked to the fire god and discussed who knows what, and now whatever _that _was is just adding to it all! Alright. No meeting for him tomorrow. Or maybe even for the rest of the week. If one more bad thing happens to him, then he might snap. If only his parents were here. Maybe they could-'

Wait.

_Parents._

Eclipsa began swearing furiously under her breath as she realized that there was literally another bad thing waiting for Marco back home. Whatever happened to his father. Even in the state he was in now, Marco would no doubt want to know where Rafael was. And judging by Angie's tone that Eclipsa heard, it was nowhere good.

'Okay, new plan.' She thought. 'I rush in as inconspicuous as possible before Marco and quickly tell Angie that Marco can't speak and that she needs to tell him to relax _and _that she'll tell him about Rafael later. No matter what, he _cannot _know. He's already too mentally vulnerable at the moment. He needs something to help him calm down.'

Eclipsa took a deep breath, feeling the urge to ram her head into the steering wheel an indiscriminate number of times. Maybe she needed something to relax too.

'Alright. That's what's happening. Don't let him learn about whatever happened to Rafael. If he does, then we might as well be digging his grave or wor-'

"I know what you're thinking, and you don't have to worry." Marco said out of nowhere. "I know how close I am to going insane here. Trust me, whatever happened to my dad, it can wait until later. I know that much."

Eclipsa glanced over at him and stared in shock, wondering for a moment if he had become a mindreader.

"How...how did you-'

"What the hell else would you be thinking about?" Marco asked rhetorically. "It's easy to see how worried you are about me, and while I appreciate whatever plan you're thinking up, I don't need it. I'm going to go straight up to my room and sleep this whole stupid day off."

"..."

"Plus, you were swearing about it a second ago like a lunatic. Got kind of loud." Marco added.

Eclipsa clenched her teeth, and exhaled. "Are you sure?' She asked. "Marco, you have to-"

"Do nothing." Marco said. "I don't have to do anything else for the rest of the day. That's my reward for enduring it all."

Eclipsa couldn't argue with that. He was right. He didn't have to do anything else. After all, he hadn't been in control of his own body for the better part of the day.

"So, anything else you want to add?" Marco asked. "Or are we both gonna shut up now and enjoy the silence while we still can?"

"Umm…" Eclipsa hummed, questioning whether to tell him or not. "I decided that you don't have to go to the meeting tomorrow?"

Marco perked up. "Really? I guess that's nice. Well, then don't expect me to do anything tomorrow either. Maybe I'll go to the hospital and hang out with Star."

As he said this, Eclipsa took another look at him. For a single moment, she thought she almost see a smile forming on the edge of his lips.

Almost.

Eclipsa shifted he eyes back to the front and focused on driving. If Marco already had a plan that would benefit him, then she wouldn't stop it.

And he _really _needed some time to think when it was just him in his head.

**5 painfully silent minutes later…**

"Marco, we're almost there." Eclipsa said, turning a corner that led to the Diazes street.

"Mm." Marco said, and did nothing more. Eclipsa looked at him worried for the millionth time and wished that this could have been prevented for the 101,283 time. These two things were all that had occupied her thoughts for the last five minutes, and it was slowly starting to consume her soul. In the meantime, Marco had gotten even more silent, and even his breathing seemed muffled in a way. It was a bad sign. But Eclipsa knew that talking to him would only make it worse, she had to let it run its course.

Pulling up to the Diazes house, Eclipsa parked in front of it and got out. Marco followed suit while Eclipsa locked her car, and the two entered the house with Marco in front. The second the front door swung open however, Angie came rushing towards them with a piece of paper in her hand.

"Marco!" She exclaimed, someone talking in a frenzy despite only having said one word "Thank god you're home. After you hung up, I was worried you didn't want to listen to me, or that something else happened-"

"Uh uh uh uh uh." Marco said, putting his hand up. "Whatever it is, it can wait. And...something did happen." He walked right past her and went up the stairs, heading up to his room. Before he reached the top, he turned around and called out one last thing.

"By the way, if I dont come back downstairs in a few hours, that means i've killed myself because I had another torture dream. If that happens, tell Star I'm sorry." He said this in a completely monochromatic tone, devoid of any signs of humanity. He then disappeared from sight and left behind a concerned Angie, while Eclipsa was left feeling sorry for him.

"What was that about?" Angie asked, turning towards Eclipsa. "I thought the whole reason he rushed home was to learn about what happened to Rafael. What happened in the ten minutes between that call ending and you getting here?"

"Something horrible." Eclipsa said. "Is there somewhere I can sit down? I need a moment."

"I guess so, sure." Angie said, pointing to the living room. "The couch is in there, unless you want to-"

"The couch is just fine." Eclipsa interjected. She walked into the living room and sat herself done on the end of the couch, leaning back as far as she could. She thought about all the Queen duties she had missed during the hours she had spent at that hospital. Hopefully Globgor had taken care of a few of them. She would spend a few minutes here to calm herself down, and then go back to the monster temple. There she had her loving family waiting for her. No more doctors, no more fire-gods, and no more depressed Marco.

Eclipsa paused and almost slapped herself for that. 'No more depressed Marco.' She thought. 'It almost sounds like a bad joke. Oh Marco, I'm so sorry. But all this is getting to me as well. I'm not even sure if there's anything I can do for you. At this point, Star is probably the only one who could cheer him up. I'll recommend to Angie that she have him visit her every day until she's discharged.'

'...'

'Oh, who am I kidding? He'll do that anyways…"

"So, do you want something to drink?" Angie asked, snapping Eclipsa out of her thoughts. She looked to her left and saw Angie standing there, waiting patiently by the television set. Had she been watching her the entire time?

"Just the most caffeinated drink you have." Eclipsa requested. "And then double it. Twice, if you can."

"That bad?" Angie said, setting the piece of paper aside. "Alright, I'll see what we have. But after that, I'd like you to tell me what happened to Marco."

"You won't like it…"

"A lot of things happened today that I didn't like." Angie said. "But that doesn't mean I wanted to remain ignorant about them."

Angie then walked into the kitchen and Eclipsa heard the sound of a coffee maker starting. 'Regular coffee.' Eclipsa thought. 'Better than nothing I suppose. I'd pray that it kicks in quickly, but I'm pretty sure that the only god is the vicinity isn't on my side.'

"What happened to Rafael?" Eclipsa asked, wanting to shift the conversation from her mind into real life. "Is he alright?"

"No…" Angie said. "Do you know that Mina Loveberry's followers broke out of prison?"

"Yes, actually." Eclipsa said. "I saw it on the news and...oh no." A spark of realization came across her. "Did they-"

"I found _this _on the front doorstep_._" Angie said, coming back into the room. She grabbed the note from earlier and handed it to Eclipsa, who read it over as slowly as possible.

_Hello._

_We are the followers of Mina Loverberry. _

_We have kidnapped your husband, and we will keep him hostage unless you comply to our demands. We demand that all monsters be executed publicly in the town square, that all monster-loving traitor Mewmans be forced out of town, and that the tyrant Queen Eclipsa be killed via beheading, along with the rest of her disgusting family. If these demands are not met, then your husband will suffer a similar fate as our leader did._

_Sincerely, the Monster-hating society. _

_(MHS)_

Eclipsa gazed foggily at the letter once she was finished, clearly unimpressed.

"Just like I suspected." She sighed. "They're unoriginal. This is pretty much what they did earlier with Meteora and Mariposa. Now that Mina's gone, they didn't know what to do, so they resorted to kidnapping somebody again. It's so copy and paste that it's actually quite pathetic."

"Pathetic?" Angie asked, a hint of anger in her voice. "They have my husband! They might kill him! They-"

"...will be dealt with." Eclipsa said. "And possibly not even by us. Angie, do you know why Mina died?"

Angie hesitated for a brief moment before answering. "...Marco mentioned something to me this morning about how Bren killed her because she was a nuisance." She said. "That he wanted revenge all to himself."

"That's about it." Eclipsa said. "I don't think he'll be too happy to see them out of prison. If we don't stop them, he will. Probably by killing them all with Tom."

"And what about Rafael?" Angie asked. "What is Bren going to do with him?"

Eclipsa winced. "If I'm being perfectly honest, he might-"

"Save him." A sudden voice said, making Angie and Eclipsa turn towards the stairs. Marco was there, leaning on the banister, having heard the whole conversation. Apparently taking a nap hadn't worked out so well.

"He's going to get my dad back from them." He continued, making his way down the rest of the stairs. "I just remembered something he said. About how I would never see my dad again without him. About how there was somebody who wasn't patient about getting his revenge. Whatever happened to my dad, I'm sure that Bren is already fixing it and murdering Mina's followers."

Neither Angie nor Eclipsa moved for a few seconds. Angie was shocked that Marco was so confident in his claim that the same person who killed him would save his father. Eclipsa was shocked that Marco was still awake and able to form coherent sentences with actual emotion. And Marco went right back upstairs after he said this, having heard and said what he needed to.

"Wait! Marco!" Eclipsa said, but he was already upstairs, and the next thing she heard was his bedroom door closing. Too late. Too late to do anything.

She groaned and clenched the pillows, wishing she had a stress ball. Although in all likelihood, she would have just given it to Marco, who would have then squeezed it so hard that it would pop.

"Great, now I'm even more confused." Angie said. "So should we listen to my son and just wait for Bren to "save" Rafael? Because I don't know how comfortable I am placing the life of my husband in the hands of that psychopat-"

"I'm not either." Eclipsa said. "But if I'm being honest, Bren has the best chance at saving him than any of us. He used to be Mina's informant. He knows where they're hiding out. He knows everyone in it. He knows _everything_."

"Everything or not, I still don't like it." Angie said, crossing her arms. She then sat down in a nearby chair. "But what's your plan for dealing with this?"

"My plan?" Eclipsa coughed. "It's...well, you see, right now I don't really have much of a-"

"Hold on." Angie said. "Don't tell me your whole plan for taking care of them is to just let Bren do all the work? Marco told me he hates us and wants us all dead! He might kill Rafael if he finds him!"

"Please calm down." Eclipsa said, dragging a hand across her face. Letting Bren take care of things wasn't her plan, but she hadn't had the proper amount of time to think of a good one. "Shouting isn't going to accomplish anything. It'll just make things worse."

"Maybe so, but I want to get my point across." Angie said. "We have to do something about this by ourselves. We can't sit around and hope that someone else does it the exact way we want to."

Eclipsa stared at her. In all honesty, that was _exactly _what she wanted to do. The planning session back at the hospital lobby had amounted to nothing. Everything had gone wrong today, and she was five seconds away from getting up and leaving without a word. She couldn't deal with it anymore. And when she thought about all the things she still had to do when she got home, all the Queen and duumvirate duties she had neglected, the feeling got even worse. Cruel as it may sound, she had little room in her heart to care for Mina's morons.

But that wouldn't be like her. She was still the Queen. She was Eclipsa Butterfly. And letting others do work for her while she sat by and watched was not what she did.

"Give me a minute to think." She said. "I'll come up with a plan to save Rafael. I...promise. As for now, is that coffee ready?"

A brief spark of thankfulness spread across Angie's, happy with the sudden decision that Eclipsa made. She left the room without saying a word and headed for the coffee maker. Eclipsa watched her leave and then retreated to her thoughts again. It was the only form of sanctuary she had left.

'Alright, time to take this from the top.' Eclipsa thought, her eyelids growing heavy. 'Let me see. Assuming Bren doesn't do anything to stop them and Marco was lying for whatever reason, the most logical solution would be to contact the police and Mewnian knights and try and communicate with them to establish a treaty. If we're lucky, this could end without any bloodshed. Problem solved.'

Eclipsa then realized she also had no clue about how she would go about accomplishing this. She still hardly knew anything.

'Hm. It's not like they left is much to go on anyways.' She thought. 'They didn't tell us how to contact or talk to them. They also didn't tell us how to even give in to their demands. It's like they wrote that letter then hoped for the best. Who knew their own incompetence would make it harder for the side they were trying to overthrow.'

Angie came back into the room a moment later, carrying an oversized mug of steaming coffee. She handed it to Eclipsa who gulped half the thing down in one go, fighting back tears as her utter lack of foresight caused her tongue to be burned into oblivion.

"I'll make some more of you need it." Angie said, having calmed herself while in the kitchen. "I might want some too honestly. After today, I-"

"Am so tired that you just want to collapse into your bed and do nothing for a month or two?" Eclipsa said, making Angie give her a look of surprise by how accurate that had been. "Yeah, me too. I'm done. Marco's incident earlier at the Ordania's was the last straw. We're both burned out. Not much left to keep the flame alive."

"Wait, what incident?" Angie asked. "Is this the "horrible" thing you mentioned earlier? What happened to him now?"

"I don't know honestly." Eclipsa said. "We were leaving the Ordania's house when suddenly he just started convulsing and hyperventilating. I slapped him to get him out of it because I thought he was under some kind of bewitchment, but then his nose started bleeding like a river. And after that…" Eclipsa bit her lip as the whole experience came back to her. "...the screaming began."

"Screaming?" Angie keened.

"Unfortunately, yes." Eclipsa said. "His started shrieking like it was the end of the world. He also mentioned something about how a promise and how someone wouldn't do something." She gritted her teeth. "_And I have my own theories about that…"_

"Then-then what happened?" Angie asked,wanting to run upstairs and hug her son again. This would definitely explain his apathetic attitude from earlier. The fact that he had still been suffering like this even after his resurrection almost made her want to vomit.

"_Then _he tried to run." Eclipsa replied. "He got out of the car and would have fled, _if _the seat belt hadn't caught itself on his ankle. He fell to the ground, hit his head, and knocked himself out." Eclipsa then made a "tch" sound. "Until, at least, he woke up a minute later, asking me if he had heard that. And I don't know what "that" was supposed to be. But then he begged me to take him home, and here we are."

Angie remained silent. Until Eclipsa heard quiet sobs coming from her. Tear drops rained down from her face and landed in the carpet below, and they only increase as the seconds passed by. Eclipsa quickly set her coffee down on the table in front of her and went over to comfort Angie.

"I'm so scared for him." She cried. "He's been through so much today. I'm scared that he's going to lose his mind over it all. I'm scared that he'll have nightmares for weeks on end. And I'm scared that the suffering might get worse from here."

As Angie continued to cry, Eclipsa set her hand on her shoulder, not knowing what else to do. This seemed to work for a slight moment, but Angie quickly went back to sobbing, breaking down entirely while all Eclipsa felt she could do was watch. But she still had to try and help.

"I know. I'm sorry." She said. "But while we can take care of everything else ourselves, the only thing we can do for Marco is hope he gets better on his own. The forces that are plaguing him like this are far beyond our control."

"That doesn't make me feel better." Angie wailed. "Quite the opposite actually."

Eclipsa paused. She didn't know how to continue handling this. Comforting people was one of her strong suits, but even she had no idea about what she should do in this situation. She had never faced something like this. The possession, the fire-God, the nightmares...she herself was getting close to crying because of it all. It was just so much to take in.

"I...I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine." Angie sniffled. "Well, not really, but you didn't make it as bad as you probably thought you did. But learning that we can't do anything about it doesn't help. If that's true, then he's all alone in this."

"No. He still has us." Eclipsa said. "We can help him through it."

"Then what exactly do you suggest we do?" Angie asked. "You said it yourself. It's beyond our control."

"That doesn't mean the only thing we can do is sit down and feel sorry for him." Eclipsa said. That might have sounded a little cruel to Angie, but it was the truth. She herself had already done plenty of that, and she learned that giving up was to lose before the battle even began. And Eclipsa knew that they were dangerously close to defeat.

"T-then what should we do?" Angie cried. "What's the first step to helping him?"

"Saving your husband." Eclipsa said, making Angie perk up. "He needs _both _of his parents to get him through this. We find him, and then you two along with everyone else will help Marco anyway you can. Even if he doesn't want it. It's how my parents helped me through things." Eclipsa then hesitated for a brief moment. "Before, of course, they disowned me for falling in love with Globgor. But that's besides the point."

"Then what's your plan?"

Eclipsa took a deep breath. "I'm going to guess that if they're stupid enough to try the same type of plan twice, then they're stupid enough to fall for another sting operation." She pulled a cell phone out of her pocket and started to dial. "Call the police." She told Angie. "Tell them that I want to speak to them."

"Wait, if I'm calling the police, then are you calling?"

"...An old friend."

**Halfway across town…**

In a dark, dreary, and rather cumbersome place, two of Mina's morons were standing guard over Rafael, small knives in their hands and still dressed in their prison uniforms. And as most stereotypical henchmen guarding some did, they argued.

"What's the bosses plan?" One asked, itching to take potshots at a nearby rat. They didn't have a gun, but they still had the urge."

"We wait until the demands are made stupid." The other one said. "Weren't you at the meeting covering all that? Why are you even asking?"

"...I was busy."

"You were sitting in the front row! I saw you!"

"I wasn't paying attention."

"Oh, you're hopeless. You know, I'm betting that Mina-"

"Praise Mina."

"Praise Mina. I'm betting that Mina would have kicked you-"

"You're nothing special either!"

The shout echoed around the walls, and both of them stared at each other like they were looking at literal walking garbage.

The one with the potshot itch scoffed. "Why did we get paired together to guard this guy? We hate each other."

"Yeah." The second one replied. "But at least-"

"Excuse me." A voice from behind them said. They both turned their heads slightly to gaze at Rafael, tied to a simple wooden chair by a rope that looked like it had been bought at a dollar store.

"But can I suggest that you two-" Rafael attempted to say, before he was rudely interrupted.

"Quiet!" The second one shrieked. "You're not allowed to speak! Bosses orders. If you speak again we'll knock all your teeth out." He turned back to Potshot. "Now, where was I? Oh yes, but at least we're getting the easy jobs. Guarding this guy is the most undemanding thing I've ever done."

"Easy for you to say_."_ Potshot exclaimed. "I'm half bored out of my mind. When is our shift over? I'm hungry." He said this with the whininess of a 6 year old child, and instantly Rafael realized that he could probably just convince them to untie him if he tried hard enough.

"You're hungry?" He said, putting his on-the-spot plan into action. "So am I! Listen, if you let me go, then I can-"

"QUIET!" The second one roared. "Speak again and it's a boot to the face that you'll get! I don't care what you can do for us!"

Rafael winced. This would not be so easy. If it was only the potshot one here, the one that seemed much more gullible, he might be able to do it. He looked around. Was there anything he could use? If he could-

"Great, now _I'm _hungry." The second one said. He sighed and turned to leave. "I'm going to get a snack. Stay here and watch the prisoner."

"Hey! That's not fair at all!" Potshot complained. "I said I was hungry first, so I should get to eat first!"

"Yeah, but the boss likes me more, so deal with it." The second one lied. He walked away and vanished into the surrounding darkness, leaving Potshot and Rafael by themselves.

"Ugh. What a jerk." Potshot said to himself. "I swear, what Mina-" He paused. "...Praise Mina. What Mina was thinking when she accepted him into our group is beyond me. The boss likes him more? Give me a break! I met him first! And I said I was hungry first! That should be enough to-"

"I can make you something to eat." Rafael blurted out. "If you let me go, I can make you something."

"Be quiet." Potshot ordered. "You know you're not allowed to speak. Do you wanna get punched in the mouth, or is it just plain…...wait, did you say you could make me something to eat?"

Rafael held back a grin. It was already working.

"Yes." He said. "I can make the most delicious meal you have ever tasted! All you need to do is untie me, show me where you keep your food, and I'll get to work!"

"You-you'd really do that?" Potshot asked, his hunger and basic stupidity getting the best of him. "Cause I'll be honest, all I've had to eat for a long time is prison food. It's so bland that I've almost forgotten what real food tastes like."

Rafael gasped for dramatic effect. "How horrible!" He said. "You must have greatly suffered in there!"

"I did!" Potshot exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. "And what's worse, I've hardly had anything to eat since we broke out this morning! Just a cracker! One. Damn. Cracker! And it wasn't even a _good _cracker! It was crumbly and stale and all that."

"I can't believe what I am hearing." Rafael said. "You poor man. Please, untie me this instance so I may fix you something proper! I promise it will be-"

"Not done yet." Potshot said. "And then there was the problem with the other prisoners. They didn't respect us at all! Like, hello! We are the followers of Mina Loveberry! A little respect over here!"

"Uhh...yes, of course." Rafael said, his eyes darting from side to side. "But what were you saying about foo-"

"And that doesn't even bring to describe the complete travesty that was the library! I only went to it once, but I could tell just how run down it was. Here, let me tell you about that…"

As Potshot began rambling on about how the prisons books had broken spines or some irritating nonsense like that, Rafael began to sweat in the chair. This was getting out of hand. He had to get out now. He had no idea when the other one would return, and he _certainly _wouldn't fall for the same trick. It was now or never.

"Hey!" Rafael said loudly, making Potshot pause mid-sentence. "You know, I've learned it's best to talk over a meal. Why don't we combine this? You untie me and I can fix you something nice, along with the rest of your friends _except _that guard that was just here, while you can tell me all your horrible prison tales! What do you say?"

Potshot seemed to think about it. One hand, the utter bollocking he would receive for untying Rafael would be greatly damaging to his poor mental health, which was already extremely fragile after his short prison stay. But on the other hand...he was really hungry. And he could brag _all day long _about the awesome meal he got while the other guard would be chewing down on crackers. It would be glorious.

"Okay." Potshot said. "I like this idea." He walked around to the back of the chair and slowly began to untie the knots. Rafael looked around as casually as he could, checking to make sure that nobody else was around.

He felt the tension in his body slide away as the ropes fell to the floor, and Potshot stood up straight.

"Alright." He said. "All done. Now let me take you to the food area, and there we can-"

Before Potshot could say anything else, Rafael stood up, turned around, and punched him in the throat. Potshot stumbled backward in shock, before Rafael picked up the chair with one hand and smashed it over his head. Potshot fell to his knees, and for the finishing blow Rafael reared his hand back and karate-chopped him in the neck. The personification of stupidity among Mina's followers fell to the ground, unconscious, and Rafael briefly surveyed his handiwork.

"_That _was something my mijo taught me." He boasted before quickly running off. All he had to do now was find a way out. There was nothing else to it.

This problem was already fixing itself.

**Meanwhile...**

On the other side of town, in the middle of a giant forest, there once sat a great place. A place overflowing with magic. A sacred and special place, restricted to only the most elite of the elite magic users.

The Magic Sanctuary.

But as the whole world would soon know, it wasn't like that anymore. It never would be. It was long gone, replaced by something far more sinister. It was something else now.

The doors to the Fire Sanctuary swung open as Bren, clad in blood-soaked clothes and wearing a rather gleeful expression, entered and strolled in like the CEO of a fast food chain walking into one of their backwoods restaurants. He was moving so fast that Tom had to speed walk to keep up with him, and slung over the demon prince's shoulder was one of Mina's followers, specifically guard #2, he who is hated by Potshot. Freshly kidnapped and knocked out cold, he was about to become part of a most dreadful affair.

"Set him done here." Bren said, pointing to a random spot on the floor. Tom begrudgingly threw him on the floor and then walked over to a nearby corner and waited, sensing that he wasn't needed for the moment.

He hated this. He hated _all _of this. Tom had immediately taken note of the fact that Bren's clothes were splattered with a new shade of crimson after his fight with Marco, and his hatred for his "master" somehow grew even higher. But he knew what would happen if he disobeyed.

He just wished everybody else knew as well.

Bren kneeled over the guard and slapped him in the face, which provoked approximately zero response. Groaning in annoyance, he grabbed both of his arms and dragged him over to one of the nearby bonfires. He held the guards left hand directly over the flames, frying it in an instant.

As the air became thick with the smell of cooking flesh, the guards eyes shot open and he let out a guttural scream, yanking his arm away from Bren and the fire.

"AH! SHIT!" They exclaimed, cradling their burned hand. They frantically looked around for whoever had done this them, their eyes filled with newfound rage. "WHO THE HELL-" They spotted Bren and backtracked in an instant.

Letting out a silent and lengthy expletive, the guard got up off the ground and moved away from Bren, who had the slightest semblance of a grin on his face. They tried to run for the door, but Bren nodded at Tom, who stepped in front of them and shoved them back.

They stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, landing on their burnt hand. More swears poured out of the guards mouth as Bren fought back laughter at the pitiful display. He sighed happily and decided to just end this as quickly as possible.

"Alright." He said. "I'm sure you're wondering why you're here, and why I-"

"You're Bren. That guy everyone was talking about." The guard said fearfully, still clutching their hand. "You-you killed Mina. You got us put in jail. You ruined everything we worked towards!"

Bren looked from side to side. "Tch. Whole damn town knows who I am now…" He complained. "But on the topic of what I'm doing to you guys and Mina, should I say sorry? I mean, I'm not sorry, but if it makes you feel better for a few minutes before your death, then I suppose I could-"

"Wait, you're going to kill me?!" The guard exclaimed, jumping up again.

"Uh, yeah. What'd you expect? That I would just let you go?" Bren asked. "No. You're one of Mina's followers. I would have killed all of you if you hadn't been put in prison like that. Really, you should be grateful you were locked up. It's much more favorable than I what I would have done to you…" Bren then got a glint in his eye as the orange glow emitting from them intensified, almost as if he was looking forward to it. The guard gulped and took a step backwards, but was careful of Tom who he knew was still lurking behind him.

"Then why am I still alive?" He asked. "What did you bring me here for? And why me in particular?"

"Back to the questions already?" Bren sighed. "Fine then. If you must know, I had an assumption earlier." He started pacing around as he answered the guard's question. "About something. What the assumption was isn't important right now, and frankly, I'm not going to give you the honor of knowing. But I need you because while I'm positive that my suspicions are correct, I want to be _absolutely _sure. As for why I chose you...well, you were just an easy target. You should _never _have snuck off to go get that snack. I believe it would be about now that your partner is knocked out on the floor and Rafael is escaping…"

"He's not my partner." The guard growled. "He's hardly even-wait, what do you mean knocked out? And that guy we captured escaped?! And is name is Rafael?!"

"That's the short of it." Bren said, shrugging. "Honestly, I expected it to happen sooner, considering just how incompetent you lot are." He chuckled for a brief moment. "It's actually sad to think about. This was pretty much your best, and it went so badly that Butterfly and Diaz won't even have to intervene this time." Bren then started pacing again. "Hm. Wonder how they're doing? I haven't really checked up on them for the past few hours, and while I did beat Marco into a bloody paste, I'm _positive _that I didn't kill him…"

Across the room, Tom flinched. Specifically right after "bloody paste." If Bren said he was sure that he didn't kill Marco, then there was a good chance that it was the truth. But Tom remembered when he first fought him. That..._creature _wearing the face of a man. He remembered how hard he hit. Tom didn't think Marco could even take one punch from Bren, assuming he wasn't holding back. It hurt to think about. He brought his focus back to the conversation, the idea of Marco lying dead in a hospital bed being too painful to think about.

"What are you talking about?" The guard asked.

"None of your business." Bren said. "Now, time for my questions." He clasped his hands together."Like I said, I brought you here for information, so you're going to give it to me."

"And why should I?" The guard said. "You said you were going to kill me! What's the point of telling you anything if I know I'm going to die afterwards?"

"A very good point." Bren said, giving him a smile similar to one a talk show host would give to a rude guest. "I _am _going to kill you, whether you tell me what I want to know or not. But if you _don't _tell me, then I can promise that you will die via torture. Several long and excruciatingly painful hours of torture. But if you do tell me...then I'll make it quick."

"..."

"So yeah." Bren said, spreading his arms. "_That's _your incentive."

The guard took a moment to think about this. Both options ended with his death, so he had to be smart about his if he was to survive. But Bren wasn't the threat here. After all, he was nothing but a kid. He looked scrawny. The _real_ threat was the demon behind him. If he could take the demon out, then he could just push the little monster into one of those bonfire pits. But how? How could he-

"So. First question." Bren said, before pausing and laughing again. "God, this feels weird. Usually it's other people asking _me _the questions, not the other way around. Ah, well. I guess you just gotta do what you have to."

"I-" The guard started.

"Who set this up?" Bren interrupted. "Who's your boss?"

"What?" The guard said. "Our _boss_?"

"Yeah." Bren said expectantly. "It's obviously someone else. You guys are too stupid to come up with a plan on your own, even an unoriginal one like kidnapping Rafael. Somebody else is pulling the strings here, thin as they are. So who is it?"

"Uhh...I don't know." The guard said unconvincingly. "None of us even know what we're doing! We were just all broken out of prison by a bunch of masked short people and then told to kidnap that guy. So we did, and then we were told to go to stupid warehouse and wait."

"You don't know who?" Bren asked.

The guard nodded frantically.

Bren turned away from them and shook his head. "Hm. Alright then. Lucitor, break his arm or something. Choose whichever one you want, I don't care."

The guards heartbeats instantly tripled as they turned towards Tom, who was already heading their way. They jumped up and lunged for Bren, but Tom teleported directly in front of them in a tower of fire. They stopped cold and turned to run, but it was too late. The demon prince grabbed their left arm and toward it as hard as he could, being rewarded with a disgustingly loud SNAP as the bone shattered. Tom honestly would have hated doing it, but considering who he was doing it to, he found it rather difficult to feel sorry for the same person who had beaten his sorta-kinda totally not girlfriend to near death.

'...Sorta-kinda…' He thought, now completely unconcerned with the screaming man now clutching his arm.

As Tom thought about his oh-so precious feelings, one of the only things he had left at this point, the guard fell to his knees, sobbing. Bren approached and loomed over him, the look on his face already telling the guard what he wanted to know.

"I'm telling you." The man repeated. "None of us know who is he. We just got a phone call and-"

"A phone call?" Bren asked. "Really? Where did you even get the telephone after the prison break? And more importantly, who's the idiot that came up with all these ridiculous cover stories? Clearly their stupidity knows no bounds."

"I...I…" The guard stammered, knowing that the jig was up. And the look on _his _face told Bren exactly that.

"Ah." He said. "Glad to see that you finally realized just how bad this is looking for you. Granted, it was bad from the start, but if there's one thing I hate on this annoying little world, it's _liars."_

Bren paused.

"...And interrupters." He continued. "And Star Butterfly. And Eclipsa Butterfly. In fact, just jot down the entire Butterfly family. Now who else...ah, yes. Mina, Marco, Janna, the royals, _that little fucking horse head,_ and-"

"What are you going to do with me?" The guard asked.

"I thought I already made that obvious earlier." Bren said. "Wow, terrible memories, awful liars, more stupid than a robot dog bought at a k-mart, and you're still not telling me the truth. How your bloodline has managed to survive this long is beyond me. Clearly you have some sort of divine protection, although I guess god is currently looking the other way."

"I-if I tell who our boss is, will you promise to let me go?" The guard asked, now remembering full well that Bren intended to murder him.

Bren pursed his lips and thought about it.

"Sure." He said. "But if you lie again, then it's death by fire." He pointed to one of the bonfire pits.

The guards good arm started shaking in fear but at the same time he let out a sigh of relief. If he played his cards right, he _might _be able to make it out of...wherever he was alive.

"Okay. Okay…" The guard took a deep breath. "It-it's Lord Brudo." He confessed. "He's in charge. He hired someone to break us out, and he told us to kidnap that guy and wait."

Bren nodded and sighed. "Yeah, I suspected as much. That little shit. Couldn't wait, could he? If he had been patient, none of this would have happened. But of course had to try something stupid. And-" Bren speech stopped suddenly, something that the guard just said coming back to him. "Hold on. I thought Brudo was broke after his whole tax day thing. He literally told me that himself. Who did he hire?"

"Alright, _that _I'm clueless about." The guard said. "And I swear that I'm telling the truth this time!"

"I actually believe you." Bren said, rolling his eyes. "Now, what to do with Brudo…...what's happening next?"

"Next?"

"_Next." _Bren repeated. "What is Brudo's next move? What is he going to have you do next?"

"Well, originally we were going to wait for a response from the Butterfly's about the random note, but if that guys really escaped like you said, then we would all go to castle Avarius. Brudo told us to go there if anything went wrong."

"Hm. Then that's where I'll be going. Best case scenario, your friends are all there and I get to take care of them. Worst case, only Brudo is there, which isn't as fun. But either way, I'm putting an end to this. Butterfly should thank me really. I'm taking care of Earthni's problems for her!"

The guard rubbed his bad arm with his good one. "Does-does this mean can go now? I told you everything I know."

"Not yet. One last thing." Bren said. "Why are you working for Brudo? You guys hate monsters. Shouldn't you be against him?"

The guard paused. "I mean...if he's helping us, then he has to hate his own kind, right? Okay, we only ever thought of him as an ally."

"If you lot had name tags, every single one would either be "dumb" or "dumber"." Bren said. "I feel like now you're just making up stuff on the spot, and you hadn't planned ahead in any way."

"Umm…"

"Thought so."

"Can-can I go?" The guard asked again. "I told you everything."

"Oh, was that all?" Bren said, the tone in his voice indicating that he didn't intend on keeping his word. "Such a disappointment. I would let you go, but if that's all you know, then I'm afraid it wasn't good enough."

"But-but you promised!" The guard said. "You told me-"

"Exactly." Bren said with glee. "I _told _you. I ever promised. And even if I had, it wouldn't have meant a damn thing. You were dead the second you broke out of that prison."

The guard stood up. He looked at Tom. "You." He said, pointing at him. "I know who you are. I know that we're not friends and that we don't know each other , but you have to-"

"Won't work." Bren said. "If Star and Marco couldn't convince him, then you sure as hell won't. Lucitor, end this rambling idiot already. Try not to make a mess though, I'd rather not have to clean this place."

Bren turned away from the spectacle as Tom approached the guard for the second and final time. Tom reaches for the guards throat as Bren rubbed his eyes in dissatisfaction. A sudden scream of terror and pain echoed throughout the Sanctuary and then stopped, with the sound of a body hitting the floor a moment later confirming that it was over.

"Throw him into one of the bonfires." He ordered. "Leave no trace."

Tom obeyed and threw the corpse into one of the pits, and it ignited instantly as if coated in oil. The two simply stood there for a moment, watching it burn. Ashes started to fly out for just as Bren turned around and walked away.

"We're going to my depository. I need to pick some things up for what comes next." He told Tom. "Hurry up."

Tom took one last look at the burning body, narrowed his eyes, and then followed Bren.

He wasn't sure how he should feel about what just happened, but he knew for a fact that he didn't feel as bad as he should.

**Mansion Avarius…**

Halfway across town, Lord Brudo the broke sat in his favorite chair and twiddled his thumbs, waiting for the right time to act. He was growing tired of it though. Of waiting. He had already waited so long for his revenge against Ludo, and since Bren was clearly taking his sweet time in enacting that, he decided to take matters into his own hands. And although he loathed working with the same people who wished to expunge monsters from Earthni, he was out of options for potential help.

But it would all be worth it.

Once Mina's followers took over the town and all monsters were captured, Brudo would personally execute Ludo in the streets. For everything he had done, Ludo was no longer family. He was a disgrace and unworthy to carry the Avarius name. After that, the knights of Mewni would simply swoop in and kill Mina's morons, while he would already be long gone. And he wouldn't feel the slightest twinge of guilt at it either.

'They were never going to succeed.' He thought to himself. 'They're so useless that I had to put the kidnapping idea into their head for them to even think of it. After I had my children break them all out…' He paused and his mind went back to his heirs.

'Well, the ones that haven't turned to Dennis's side anyways. But anyways, they would never have gotten out of that prison by themselves. They're nothing without Mina, little more than some mindless drones that will follow anyone's orders, no matter who they are.'

As this thought left his mind, a loud ringing sound rang through the house. Brudo nearly jumped out of his slippers at the sudden noise, and pulled Bren's black communication of his pocket.

"What?" He growled. "This is not a good tim-"

"I know what you're doing." Bren's said, not waiting for him to finish. "And it is _genius."_

"Wha-what do you mean?" Brudo croaked, his voice dying in his throat.

"The whole breaking Mina's followers out of prison and having them kidnap Rafael." Bren replied. "I _love _it. I wish I could have thought of it."

"How-how did you even find out about that?"

"Do you really have to ask?"

Brudo honestly didn't. Bren always seemed to know what was convenient for him at the time. If he didn't know better, Brudo would have believed he was psychic.

"No. No I don't." He said.

"Good." Bren said. "Now come down to the Sanctuary. I'll meet you there to discuss our next point of action."

Brudo blinked. Was this really happening? Bren found out about his secret plan and _liked _it? It was unprecedented. But why there? At the Sanctuary?

"Why don't we just keep talking like this-"

"No time!" Bren interrupted. "I'll see you then!" The line suddenly went dead and Brudo stared at the device in shock. He still couldn't believe what he had heard, but he wasn't complaining. He jumped out of his chair and threw on a coat before running out of the house, moving faster than he ever had in years. So fast, in fact, that he failed to notice the two pairs of eyes watching him from a nearby bush, as well as some horns sticking out of them.

"Dumb bastard." One of the pairs of eyes said. As Brudo ran out of view, Bren stood up and brushed himself off. He moved towards the front door towards the front door while Tom dragged a giant metal crate behind them. Bren flicked the doorknob off, entered, and took a seat in Brudo's favorite chair. Tom set the crate down at a random spot while Bren grabbed the regular house phone placed next to the chair.

"Time to make a call..." He said to himself, and a minute later a cell phone rang in a semi-abandoned warehouse, every person inside frantically searching for Rafael.

Everything was going according to plan.

**End chapter 18**

**A/N: Well, Bren certainly has something planned. And Mina's morons were hardly a threat. Might have made them out to be one, but obviously their incompetence got the better of them. The next chapter won't be kind on them or Brudo. And that's being generous.**

**And I know this chapter is shorter than usual, and this might be how long future chapters will be from now on. Sorry about that.**

**And depending on how the next chapter goes, this fic may be rated M from then on. If it does end up like that, then I'll leave a note telling everyone that.**

**Until next time.**


	19. Note for chapter 19

**Okay, hello to everyone that still reads this fanfic (thanks for that by the way). I have two things to announce before the next chapter hits, and I thought it would be best to let everyone know.**

**From now on, when chapter 19 comes out, this fic will be rated M. Again, something I just thought I should let everyone know. Another thing to mention about this is that it won't be because of smut stuff, but rather violence. I don't know what the criteria for violence and blood is that makes something T-rated, but I'm sure that chapter 19 is...not that. So I'm changing it to an M rating to be safe. Oh, and if anyone is tired or rolling their eyes at all the blood, don't worry. Someone will get called out for it in 19. Along with a few other things that I think someone in this story needs to say.**

**The second thing I want to say is that this chapter may or may not take longer to release. With the way I'm ending it, there is still a lot left to do and plan out, and all the different segments of it are starting to form slight roadblocks. School as well is also a bit of a problem right now, as this week it is particularly bothersome. So...that's happening. It's not a 100 percent possibility that it will take longer to release, but if it does, then this is why.**

**So I hope everyone understands, and I apologize if it is late.**


	20. Chapter 19: Here comes the sun

**A/N: Before I begin this chapter, I want to thank everybody that still reads this thing for waiting so patiently for it, and to apologize for it taking so long. Hopefully future updates won't take a month in the future, and if they do I will leave a note like I did for this chapter beforehand. So everyone now please enjoy this utter monstrosity of a chapter.**

**Aflame **

**Chapter 19**

**Here comes the sun**

It should have only been a quick walk.

It shouldn't have taken any longer than a few minutes to complete.

But like most things nowadays, nothing went as planned, and by the time he had taken no more than a few steps outside his house, Lord Brudo was reduced to a wheezing, panting, and exhausted mess of a person that was left completely out of breath.

He knew he had made a mistake. He had gotten ahead of himself and tried to rush to his destination at top speed, but his own bad health and the summer sun beating down on him took its effect, and his "rush" turned into more of a "drag".

It especially didn't help when he discovered that certain parts of the sidewalk were still blocked with pieces of rubble, collateral damage from an event that he helped cause. But no guilt was felt when he saw the various chunks of brick, masonry, and metal blocking his way. He only felt annoyed. Annoyed because they forced him to walk around it, thus taking up more previous time.

And that didn't even begin to mention the buildings that had collapsed entirely, something that required him to have to detour around and go down a different street altogether. This created its own problems because he really only knew one way to get to the Sanctuary, and that was the only route he had memorized fully. Combined with the fact that he hardly ever went outside his house, the result was that there were certain parts of his walk where he had no idea what part of the town he was in.

Occasionally people took notice of how he was practically gasping for air and tried to help. This was no surprise. After all, because of the whole "tax day" business, Brudo was now one of the most popular people in town, even if all that money was now being used to fix it.

And to the Avarius Lord, the whole situation was becoming ironic. Brudo had distracted everyone into coming to the mansion with his money, and now that same money was not going to be used for its intended purpose but rather to repair damage from the demon attack that he was protecting them from _with the money._

So it was all rather poetic. Which is exactly what Bren told him later on when he had explained the whole mess early this morning, right after Butterfly's speech.

But back in the present, all these people tried to desperately help Brudo. "Are you okay?" They would ask, their eyes full of concern for him. "Do you need any help?" "I think you need to rest…" "Hey Brudo, thanks for giving everyone that money. We really appreciated it and…...why does it look like you're having a heart attack?"

Among other things.

But Brudo waved them off and said he was fine to every single one. He was on a mission. One that he mustn't fail. He would get there. He just needed a little more time.

Although cursing the annoying townsfolk and random prices of debris were far from the only thing on his mind. In fact, those two could be considered secondary topics. He was mostly thinking about the call he got from Bren. The most recent one, where he talked about how his idea for kidnapping Rafael was "genius" and that he should go to the Sanctuary to discuss it with him. (A task which he was somehow still managing to accomplish.)

At first, Brudo had been excited. It had _almost _put a smile on his face. But after awhile, he was starting to get more and more suspicious of it. And now that he really thought about it, Bren's voice had almost sounded fake during that call, like he was putting on a voice. Brudo began to wonder whether the happiness Bren had been displaying was just a way to mask another emotion. Like anger, irritation, or worse... disappointment.

Then again, it was likely just because he had never really been praised by Bren like that before. He was more of a "good job, now shut up and get back to work" type of person. So it made perfect sense for Brudo to have been put on edge by it.

'That's right.' He thought, trying to convince himself. 'Bren isn't angry with you at all. You heard the joy in his voice. That was genuine happiness. The same happiness you heard from your children when you told them they could help Dennis build something for Ludo. Although I did make them promise that they would have to make it up to me later…...and who could have known that they would be so good at breaking into prisons?'

He could still recall that moment. The moment he told them that they would have to wear masks on their faces, sneak into the town's prison, and break out all of Mina's followers. Shame that they hadn't been wearing masks then, as Brudo failed to contain his laughter at their expressions.

At first there was silence. They had all started complaining at once, some asking him why he would want them to help the same people who hated their kind, and others who simply refused to do it and hardly said anything else.

But once he had reminded them that they owed him for letting them help out Ludo, as well as the fact that they would never survive out in the world by themselves given how young they were, they begrudgingly complied. He told them Bren's prison plan and they managed to follow it to the letter. It was quite impressive really, just how easily they pulled it off. But now they were back at home, no doubt grumbling about the whole thing.

As he thought about his children and how angry they must be at him, another worry came to mind. Dennis. Dennis, mostly notable for being the tallest of his children, was decreed by Brudo to be almost as much of a disappointment as Ludo was. Which was definitely saying something. He had left the household on his own and appeared to have managed quite well last anyone heard, although Brudo personally hoped that wasn't true.

But the real threat was if one of them decided to tell Dennis about what they did. He would no doubt call the police in an instant and everything they (he) worked for would be ruined. But Bren said he had a way to make sure that none of them talked, told Brudo to leave it to him, and the Avarius Lord agreed. He trusted him enough when it came to stuff like _that_.

Unfortunately, the more Brudo thought about it, the more he realized that it might only cause more problems. He "trusted" him with making sure they kept quiet, sure. But that didn't mean Brudo wasn't starting to regret letting Bren takeover that aspect of the plan. Bren's method would of course be either to threaten them with Tom or _actually _hurt them to make a point, and neither of these options made Brudo happy. The only person who hurt his family was _him_. A scowl on his face was the only result of thinking about it.

But the "more problems" part came with the actual way of keeping them quiet. Bren was cruel. Evil. He enjoyed watching people suffer and die before him. All of these things were well known to Brudo as well as anyone else that knew him. So whatever he had planned for the Avarius children obviously wasn't going to be pleasant.

But depending on what he did, they might talk anyway.

From a very young age, Brudo was taught that two of the most powerful forces on the planet were fear and control. Although he never wished to recount the events that _led _to him learning this lesson, it was something he had truly never forgotten. And he learned that a person can get almost anything they want through the use of those two forces. Information. Power.

Loyalty.

But now that Bren had these two things in abundance, and was sure to use them against his children, anything could happen. But the most likely option _and _the problem was this: Brudo was...not a good father. He had used fear and control to keep his own children in line throughout their entire lives, the same way he had been as a boy. His children were terrified of him, although they rarely showed it to anyone, even their own equally scared siblings.

_But _now that Bren was doing his own thing with them, his own power over his dozens of sons and daughters might crumble as they realized that Bren is what a true monster looks like, not their father. _He _was the one they should be scared of, not some overweight, weak old man losing his hair by the minute.

He would become nothing if this is what transpired. And then they would revolt against him, forget all about Bren in the heat of the moment, and tell the police everything. About how tax day was just a ploy he had done alongside the towns current and most hated enemy. And while them just forgetting about Bren was a bit of a long shot, Brudo knew just how much his children hated him. They would want to hurt him as much as possible, as fast as possible. Reporting him for what he did was definitely a way to hurt him. Hate would overcome fear as his life would be ruined.

'Hopefully he hasn't done it yet.' Brudo thought, sweating even more than before. 'I have to keep my power over them. When I told Bren he could do whatever he wanted to keep them quiet, I hadn't thought it through then. I need to learn to be patient. To think things through _all _the way. Otherwise...this happens.'

But there was no more time to reflect on any of this. He had made it. Or, at least, made it to the path that led to the Sanctuary. Brudo quickly glanced around to make sure that no one was watching him and moved forward, taking note of every colorful songbird singing in the trees or fluffy squirrel scurrying about with an acorn in its mouth. It was disgusting. Nature and kindness had clearly never been his métier, and in this forest it was all he was surrounded by.

Soon however, he was met with a sight that was much more familiar, and that was one of giant holes in the ground, trees lying on their sides, and scorch marks as far as the eye could see. He knew what this was. He was getting closer to not just the Sanctuary, but to the exact spot where Bren had Tom summon the giant demon up from the Underworld. He traveled slightly more carefully after seeing these things, as if another demon would leap out of nowhere and tear his head off.

Then, he reached a clearing. He stopped mid-gaunt as he saw the Sanctuary standing before him, looking as imposing as ever. He had only ever seen it once, when Bren had shown it to him as their meeting place in case things took a turn for the absolute worst, but he hadn't let him inside.

"So much for absolute worst…" He mumbled, before walking on and reaching the stepping stones that led to the structure. He carefully leapt over them one at a time, trying not to fall into the lake that now trapped him on said stones. He wasn't sure how deep that water was, and he certainly inclined wasn't to find out.

At long last, he made it across and now his only obstacle between him and the inside was the door that stood in his way. Worry flicked in his mind as he thought about the things that could go wrong, which was a lot. So many things that he didn't even have time to list them all. He simply imagined them happening and then moved on to the next one.

But he had already come this far. So to give up now was foolish. He made his choice, and there was no turning back.

He grabbed the handle.

He opened the door.

And immediately he was hit with a blast of hot air and smoke that was as solid as a brick wall. Foul-smelling smoke, like someone had overcooked a pig and left it there burning. He coughed and waved the smoke out of his face, desperately trying to get away from it.

"Talk about a warm welcome…" He grumbled, before further coughing ensued. But this didn't dissuade him in any way. He had a mission to complete. Bren was probably inside right now, waiting for him. And the last thing Brudo wanted was to _keep _him waiting.

He pushed through the wall of smoke and ash and entered the main sanctuary and tried to look around, but inside wasn't much better. The burning fumes that had just poisoned his lungs were clouding the entirety of the Sanctuary. He could barely keep his eyes open from the tears being forced out of them by the heat. He dropped to the floor and crawled back outside, hacking and continuing to cough like his lungs were on fire.

"Bren!" He screamed at the entrance, although his voice came out as a pained whisper. "Are you there? I can't get through the damn door ! There's too much smoke!"

He received no answer. If Bren was there, he didn't seem to care that Brudo couldn't get in. All the Avarius Lord could do now was wait until enough smoke had funneled out of the building that it was safe to go inside.

He sat down on one of the stepping stones, the water staining the edges of his clothes. But he didn't even seem to notice. Frankly, he was more concerned with what might happen next. If Bren wasn't inside for whatever reason, then he would come back to Brudo sitting outside the Sanctuary while it was smoking and possibly burning down. Brudo could see the hint of a flame or two through the thick cloud of fumes, but he wasn't sure if that was an actual out-of-control fire or just an addition Bren made after he rebuilt the place. As said before, he had never seen the inside of the Sanctuary for himself, but he knew Bren liked fire, so it wouldn't be a stretch for him to decorate it as such.

But it was really the smell that put him off. He knew what a regular fire smelled like. The ones that destroyed houses and were caused by idiots playing with stoves in the kitchen. But this fire didn't smell like that. It smelled like something (or _someone_) was burning alive in there. He nearly gagged as he inhaled another breath of the stuff, and he scurried backward to another stone, the lake water now completely staining the bottom of his robes. _This _time he noticed, but didn't do much to stop it.

'This better be worth it.' He thought, remembering the horrible journey he took to get there. 'I haven't traveled that far a distance in years. And what was I greeted with? A bunch of hot, flaming, cancer filled air that invited itself into my lungs! Is something actually on fire in there, or does Bren just keep it full of smoke all day long?'

His question was answered when the last of the smoke trickled out of the Sanctuary and provided a glimpse of what was inside. He stood up and stared, surprised that all the smoke had disappeared in such a short time. But he was far from complaining. He wringed out his robes as best he could and entered the Sanctuary, making sure that his breathing was as slow as could possibly be.

Inside was magnificent. He looked around in awe at the place, which could only be described as a work of art. Statues, patterns, weird spiral things made of orange pebbles on the floor...everywhere he looked there was a new sight to see. But he didn't see the one thing he was expecting: Bren himself.

"Hey!" He shouted. "Are you here? I got your little phone call, and came like you said!"

Silence.

"Are you serious?" He asked himself. "After all that? Why the hell isn't he here?" Brudo looked around frantically, as if expecting Bren to pop up out of nowhere, but he never did. It was just him. No one else. He walked further into the building and took a glance at everything, a small shred of hope left in him that Bren would still arrive.

But as he approached one of the fire pits, he could see small amounts of leftover ash flying out of it. Odd, considering that there wasn't really a draft anywhere, but he was more interested in what was causing it. He walked towards the pit and made sure to keep a safe distance, lest he burn half his face off. But after some awkward maneuvering, he managed to angle himself in a way that he could peer into it safely.

His eyes widened as a choking sound forcefully escaped his throat. There was somethi-no, _someone_ in there. He knew now. He knew what had been causing the burning pig smell.

It was a pile of charred and blackened bones. Burned to the point that they resembled charcoal more than bone, but still recognizable as human. The fire was making quick work of them, and in half an hour would surely be gone altogether.

Brudo nearly gagged when he realized what it was, and he ran backwards, his hands on his knees as he bent over, continuing to gag like he was going to vomit.

"Wha-what the hell…" He exclaimed, breathing heavily. Pure horror was the only emotion that he was displaying. While he knew Bren was basically evil, and that he would do anything to get his revenge, this was something else. Seeing his work firsthand was not the same as hearing about it. He almost felt like he was having a panic attack, but he did his best to slow down his breathing and calm himself. It seemed to work, at least for the moment. Once he was calm enough to think clearly, a million thoughts fluttered through his mind. Why did he do this? What was Bren's reasoning behind it all? And why _here_ of all places?

But the real question was who they _were_. Why would Bren just kill somebody and throw them in this pit? Who would have done something so bad that it would have prompted him to do this?

He paused.

'Okay, that's a stupid question.' He thought. 'Sometimes it seems that pretty much everybody everywhere had done something to piss him off. Except me, I guess. But he was so happy on that phone, so excited for my plan…'

Brudo turned toward the center of the sanctuary.

"So why the hell isn't he here?!" He yelled, momentarily forgetting about the burning skeleton.

A loud pop crackled out from one of the fire pits, and for a second Brudo thought that the Sanctuary itself was mocking him.

"Ergh. Calm down." He told himself. "He'll be here. He'll show up any second now. He said that he'd meet me here, and has he lied before? No. He should be arriving right now…."

Brudo glanced at the door, expecting Bren to walk through it right then and there.

He didn't.

"Hold on…" Brudo said. "Why would he…"

Something in Brudo clicked as he realized that this was making less and less sense. Why would Bren tell him to meet him at the Sanctuary? Why would he bring him to what was basically his most sacred domain just to _talk_? When he could have easily done that on the phone or at the mansion?

There was no reason he would do that. And he had hung up awfully quick back at the mansion. That wasn't like him at all. Bren _loved _to explain his plans and reasoning behind everything. It was a pattern that Brudo had seen many times, and one that he suspected would eventually be his downfall.

And then there was one final thing that Brudo realized he should have seen earlier.

He would _never _have liked his plan to work with Mina's followers. He hated Mina, and thus them, with the absolute highest contempt. He would have killed them if they hadn't been locked up in prison.

'But now they're free again.' Brudo thought, a look of horror crossing his face. 'Does that mean…?'

Brudo's heart nearly stopped as he slowly looked back at the pit with the bones in it, still smoldering away. A terrible thought began to form at the back of his mind. Had he brought one of the followers here, killed them, and then dropped them in that-

'No. Nonono.' He thought. 'He wouldn't. He wouldn't just-'

Yes he would, a voice in the back of Brudo's mind said. That is exactly what he would do to someone that he hated. And the more Brudo thought about it, the more it looked like what he feared was exactly what had happened.

"Oh you son of a…" Brudo started, realizing he had been tricked. Fear and disgust turned to anger as he discerned that Bren hadn't intended to speak to him here, or anywhere really. He wasn't planning on supporting him! He just needed him out of the picture for a little while. No doubt while he took down the rest of the followers and ruined everything! The phone call had been a fluke! Everything was a fluke!

"Nononono!" He yelled. Without a moment's hesitation, he dashed out of the sanctuary, not bothering to close the doors behind him. He had to hurry. He had to get to his house and call the followers. Let them know who was coming for them. He leapt over the stepping stones five at a time, moving faster than he ever thought he could. He ran through the forest at speeds that even his flying children couldn't reach, and dashed back to the mansion, moving so quickly that everyone on the streets took notice.

At least, that is what he wanted to happen.

In actuality, he jumped over a single stepping stone and sprained his ankle when he landed, and he fell on top of the next one and groaned in pain. He managed to lift himself up somewhat and crawl-hopped across the rest of the stones, taking about five minutes to make it back to the main forest.

From there he continued his crawl/hop/sort-of-a-walk-but-not-really thing down the path, grumbling and wishing that he hadn't been so foolish. He should have known to never trust Bren. He wished for the collective demise of them all. Why had it taken him so long to see it? Why did he think that _he _would be spared for helping?

Brudo winced. Maybe he never did. But his brain had convinced him long enough that he had no choice but to face the consequences.

Once he had completed the long and repetitive walk through the path and made it back to the sidewalk, he let out a cry of anguish upon realizing that he hadn't even completed one quarter of the journey back to his mansion.

He buried his face in his hands before hobbling off, pushing past everything and everyone on the street. Nobody could help him now. His plans had been ruined. Forget warning the followers about Bren. The only hope he had now was to get back to the mansion, grab everything he could, and skip town. Maybe Bren would be too preoccupied with Star and Marco to chase him. Maybe he could get away from all this and start a new life.

But he knew that was never happening.

It was already far too late, and the only thing he was doing now was limping slowly towards his doom, like a prisoner leading themselves to their executioner.

* * *

"Come on...someone please pick up. Tenth time has to be the charm…"

_Ring...ring...ring…_*beep*. "Hello. Sorry, but we are unable to take your call at this time due to a busy signal. If you need help, please contact-"

"Ergh!" Angie exclaimed. She slammed her phone down on the table out of frustration, before pausing and carefully checking to make sure it still worked. After taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down after her uncharacteristic outburst, but it was getting harder to do by the second. "Again?" She asked, a question directed at no one in particular. "What are they even doing?"

"What's wrong?" Eclipsa asked from across the room, before putting her own phone down momentarily and walking over. "Have you explained the situation to the police yet?"

Angie sighed and gave the Queen a tired look. "I _would _if I could reach them." She said. "But I've called them ten times, and each time I was cut off by an automated voice telling me that there's a busy signal, which I didn't even know was possible for 911."

Eclipsa frowned and put her phone on hold. She sat down next to Angie and struggled to find the right thing to say, as she knew that if there was a problem with the phone lines, then there wasn't much she could do to fix it. Just as she was about to open her mouth, probably to say something reassuring, Angie spoke up again.

"And because of this, we have no way to let the police know about Rafael." She continued. "Other than driving down to the station and telling them ourselves. Which we can't do because the only way to get in is blocked by giant pieces of rubble from the demon attack, which they still haven't cleared." She sighed again. "Among other things…"

"Hold on." Eclipsa said, rearing back in confusion. "Wouldn't that mean the police aren't able to get in either? Where are they working now? Where are those calls going exactly?"

'And why didn't I know about this sooner?' She thought.

"That was the "other thing" I mentioned." Angie said. "An email was sent out to the whole town this morning by the mayor informing everyone that the police will now be working at a secret location, because he's worried that Bren might attack them otherwise. I got it about a half-hour after Star's speech, but didn't mention it because of all the…" She attempted to find the right word for it. "...Hullabaloo. So the only way to get to the police is by calling them."

"Wha-that's a terrible idea!" Eclipsa yelled. "No _wonder _it's a busy signal. With all the recent news about the prison break, people are likely freaking out and frantically calling asking for more details or if they should be worried!" She grumbled and buried her face in her hands. "Why did he even do that? He was at the meeting when Bren crashed it. He should have heard him say that he really only hates Star, and doesn't care about him or the police. They're just in the way."

"I assume they think that he'll still try to take them out." Angie said, letting herself sink into the couch cushions. "Try and make sure that they won't be able to interfere with his plans. But you're right. It's going horribly if that signal is any indication. I think the police line is going to continue being like that for a few days."

"Or until the end of time." Eclipsa scoffed. "I've met the Echo creek police department. And I can say that they constantly complain about the dozens of calls and visitors to the station they get every day droning on about menial things. If the only way to contact them truly is by phone, then that alone would provide a "busy signal" 24/7. And with the prison outbreak happening just this morning, there's no chance we can get through." She groaned loudly. "I can't believe the mayor didn't ask me about this before authorizing it…"

"I'm not really surprised. The mayor wasn't always the most...popular person in town. He just passes random laws every now and then that always makes someone mad." Angie revealed. She checked her watch and looked ready to call 911 _again_ despite Eclipsa's rant. "So should you try and get the Mewnian knights?" She suggested. "They did successfully help you and everyone else defeat that demon. I'm sure they'd be happy to help out with this."

"To be honest, they were blind drunk when they fought that creature." Eclipsa said. "And as I predicted, they hardly remembered any of it the morning after. But...yes. I do believe that they would assist us if I asked them too. They still retain some of the loyalty they had from that day." She then mumbled, "Even if it took forever to convince them…"

"Glad to hear it. Then I think the next move should be to call them." Angie said. "To be fair, I don't know what I expect them to do, but it would be nice to have more than just us working on this."

"Quite." Eclipsa agreed. "But before that I'm calling the mayor and telling him to make the police public again. We can't have that line down indefinitely, and especially not now. And then I'm telling him to connect me to them to ask for their help as well."

She picked her cell phone up and took it off hold, before explaining a few things on the other end. Angie couldn't exactly make out what they were saying, but the voice she heard sounded oddly familiar.

"I have to go…...yes, it's because of that…...I know, he probably should have told me…...I won't forget. Don't worry about that. Okay. Goodbye." She then hung up and grimaced at the screen before Angie started speaking.

"Who did you call?" She asked, having been genuinely curious about this fact for a good longl while. "You said they were an old friend right?"

"They are." Eclipsa replied. "But if you don't mind, I'd rather you don't know. I prefer to keep my secret sources...secret."

"Secret source? What are they a source for?"

"..."

"Right. Also a secret." Angie realized, waving it off.

Eclipsa nodded. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing too important. In fact, it's not even that related to the investigation we've having right now. It's simply something that I do everyday at the exact same time. Normally I would do it in private, but fate had other plans, and I was forced to do it here. Although I suppose that if something like that was going to happen on any day, it would be today."

Angie personally wanted to know more, but the tone in Eclipsa's voice as well as the expression on her face told her that she was already uncomfortable with telling her this much. So she felt it was best to not pursue it any further. Besides, if she had _said _it wasn't important, then it likely wasn't. Angie trusted the Queen enough by this point to believe that she wasn't lying.

And by the time she had worked this all out in her head, a full minute had passed in the real world.

"So...I think I better call the mayor now." Eclipsa said, finding Angie's silence in response to this divulged information to be slightly confusing. She dialed the number for the mayor's office and someone picked it up almost immediately.

"Hello?" They said, and Eclipsa instantly recognized the voice as the front desk attendant. Someone she had been forced to speak to numerous times while meeting the mayor. Even though she had an authority ten levels about the attendant, he still made her fill out all the paperwork and forms like it was a regular person seeing him. And after hearing that the mayor was never the most popular person in the town, she wondered if all this was actually his doing for whatever reason.

But she would be having none of that right now.

"This is Queen Eclipsa." She responded. "I need to speak with the mayor _immediately._"

"I'm sorry, but the mayor does not usually talk to people on the telephone without having scheduled such an appointment with him." The attendant deadpanned. "And nobody by the name of "Queen Eclipsa" is on the list for today."

'Oh, you little…' Eclipsa thought, going from zero to pissed in a moment. 'Are all desk attendants in this town terrible or what? First this person I had to talk to who knows how many times, and then the woman at the hospital. I swear, once this is all over, I'm having a meeting with the High council to talk about this and this alone. Clearly we need better recruiters for this profession.'

"It's an _emergency_." She said. "A man's life is on the line. And "Queen" is my title. I'm the actual Eclipsa, the person on the high council and one half of the duumvirate. So please, just let me talk to him, and you get back to whatever menial task you were doing."

There was a brief pause and several typing sounds were heard, before the attendant spoke again, still sounding like they didn't have a soul. "Sorry." They said. "But no one named "a man's" is listed on the town registry. I have no choice but to assume that you are lying to me, and that this is a prank call. Thank you, and goodby-"

"Okay, now you're just trying to piss me off!" Eclipsa swore, making Angie look at her surprise by her sudden swearing. "Listen, I don't care if you're bored with your job. I don't care if you don't enjoy it. I don't care about any of that. But if I don't have the mayor on the line in the next five seconds, I will fetch the Mewnian knights and have them drag you out of that office and imprison you for failing to do your damn job!"

Eclipsa stood there as the line went silent, breathing heavily after her uncharacteristic outburst. She wasn't one to do something like this often, but it was like she said. Rafael might die if she didn't get to the mayor and the police. She had no patience for this type of thing anymore. Everything she had been bottling up every since Marco's death was coming out. The anger, the impatience, the restlessness. And after seeing Marco reduced to a husk and Angie breaking down before having an outburst of her own, this idiotic desk attendant was the last straw. She had to let it loose on someone. If this didn't work, she'd get the knights to storm the office _and _sic Meteora on them as a bonus.

Luckily, the attendant finally gained an IQ point or two, and gave Eclipsa what she so desperately wanted. A satisfactory answer.

"...Okay." They said. "Let me put him on for you."

Eclipsa's rage vanished in an instant and was replaced by confusion. 'Are-are they really going to let me talk to him? Just like that?' She thought, utterly flabbergasted that her rage-a-thon had an effect on the drone-like attendant. All she was doing back there was letting off some steam.

She hadn't expected it to actually _work._

A few rustling sounds were heard, and then a conceited "Hello?" was heard, which Eclipsa instantly recognized as the mayor's voice.

"This is Eclipsa." The Queen said, knowing that the attendant likely hadn't told him who was on the line. She didn't bother waiting for a response and started talking again almost immediately, as time was of the utmost importance. "There are a few things I need to discuss with you. First and foremost, I need you to get the police and have them-"

"Okay, for a second." The mayor interrupted, sounding rather vexed. "Before we get to any of that, can I know why you yelled at and then threatened the front desk attendant? He came to me looking like he was about to cry!"

"About to cry? He has emotions?" Eclipsa asked snarkily, unable to stop herself. "That's odd. When he talked to me, he was like an emotionless robot that had the wits of a sloth."

"...That's just insulting."

"I don't care." Eclipsa said. "That's a problem for you to solve. As for right now, I'm asking for help with a problem that's much more important, and that I need the help of the police for."

"What is it?" The mayor asked, now sounding rather bored.

"Someone was kidnapped. A man named Rafael Diaz." Eclipsa said. "He was kidnapped by Mina's followers right after that speech Star made and is currently in their possession."

"A kidnapping?!" The mayor exclaimed. "Again?! I thought they already went that route with those two babies. They're literally doing the exact same thing they did last time?"

"Basically." Eclipsa said. "And not only that, but they left a ransom note and said they would kill him if we didn't give into their demands. Only problem is that they left us with no way to contact them…"

"Why would they-"

"Because they're morons and don't know what to do with themselves now that Mina's gone." Eclipsa replied. "Frankly, it's a miracle that they managed to break out of prison in the first place. And speaking of which, do you have any idea what did that? I'm still in the dark."

"Really?" The mayor asked. "I thought you would have been all over it, considering that the ones who escaped are technically _your _enemies."

"Well, "technically" they're _everyone's _enemies." Eclipsa said, her tone lined with spite. "And I had...other matters to attend to."

"Matters like…?"

Eclipsa groaned. "Long story short, Marco Diaz died and was brought back to life at the hospital because of an ancient fire god, but not before I hit Bren with my car and sent him flying into a tree."

"Wait, is _that _what that call was all about?" The mayor asked frantically. "I got a report from the police earlier that somebody called in that there was a zombie uprising at the hospital. That was you?"

"No. Well, yes, we brought him in, but we didn't bring him back." She said, before realizing she was dangerously close to rambling on. "Argh! It's not important. There are no zombies, and no one died permanently. The end, not a concern to you. Hopefully. Now, I need you to get in contact with the police and put them under my command so I can recruit them to help with the kidnapping."

"Why don't you just call them regularly?" The mayor asked her. "Why did you go straight to me?"

Angie snatched the phone from Eclipsa when she heard this and started furiously whisper-yelling into it. "Because it's a busy signal that's being caused by a hundred people calling at once! Without any way for people to go down to the department regularly, everyone is calling instead and nothing can get through!"

"Uh, who are you?" The mayor asked fearfully, not knowing who the lady on the other end of line was.

Eclipsa offered her hand out and Angie reluctantly placed the phone in it before sitting down again, wondering what she was doing acting so angry.

"Sorry about that." Eclipsa said. "It was a friend of mine who's been _trying _to contact the police for some time. Rafael is also her husband. You know, the person who was kidnapped."

"Oh." The mayor said, with a voice that almost sounded like he pitied her. "Well, as bad as that is, we can't tell everyone where the police are! Bren might-"

"Bren doesn't care about you." Eclipsa stated. "He cares about Star and no one else. Me, you, the police, Mina, her followers, the royals, _everyone _else that isn't Star is seen as nothing but an obstacle to him. Trust me, he doesn't care at all."

"Maybe." The mayor said. "But there are two ways to get around obstacles. Go around them or go through them. And that encounter I had with him at the meeting made it pretty clear that he's a fan of the latter. If we try and stop him, he'll kill us all just like that guard he had the demon boy throw out the window!"

"That's true." Eclipsa admitted. "But this kidnapping is not his doing. It is the fault of the followers of Mina Loveberry. Who, may I remind you, Bren burned alive. He hates them just as much as you or me, and they are obstacles as well. I have no doubt that he will literally tear them apart if he finds them. And he will not attempt to stop us from arresting them. This I know for a fact."

The one went silent for a moment before the mayor decided to trust Eclipsa's judgment. She knew about this stuff much better than him after all. And although he still had plenty of questions, particularly concerning the fire-god she mentioned as well as hitting Bren with a car, it was like she said. Someone's life was on the line. More important things to deal with.

"Alright." He said. "I'll contact the police, and tell them to head down to the monster temple. They'll wait for you there until you arrive upon which you can order them to do whatever you want. Is there anything else you need from me?"

"No, that should be it for now." Eclipsa said, surprised that the mayor was already accepting of this plan. "But after this whole thing is over, me and you need to have a talk about-"

_Ding-dong _

Eclipsa stopped talking, froze, and then slowly turned her head towards the Diazes front door, just as the sound of the ringing doorbell finished echoing throughout the house. Angie did the same and got up, staring at it like the Grim reaper was on her front porch.

"Hold that thought." Eclipsa said, putting the phone on a nearby table. She looked over at Angie. "Were you expecting visitors?"

"No." Angie replied. "Do you think it's someone from the hospital? Looking for Marco?"

"If it is, then I'll make sure to have Janna get them fired and then ruin their life anyway she can." Eclipsa said, before pausing as another possibility came to mind. "Wait. Didn't Marco say that he was certain Bren would save Rafael a while ago? Do-do you think that-"

"That he's already here?" Angie said shakily, the two of them exchanging glances.

"...I think you should get the door." Eclipsa said. "If it really is Rafael, then-"

"Bren is probably with him, and I don't want to see that." Angie said. "If he's behind that door, make sure he's alone. I don't want to see the face of the person who _murdered _my child."

"...If you say so." Eclipsa said, before sighing mentally. 'Oh, who are we kidding?' She thought. 'Sure. Rafael is right outside and Bren saved the man whose son he just killed. Next thing we're going to assume is that something is going to blow up randomly to top off the day. Considering all that's happened…' She reached the doorknob and opened it. 'It really only seems appropriate-'

"Oh, hello Queen Eclipsa!" Rafael said, now standing before the shocked matriarch. "It's nice to officially meet you! Before I ask you what you're doing at my home, have you seen my wife or Mijo around here? I think they'll be looking for me…"

Eclipsa couldn't speak. Behind her, a faint _thud _was heard as Angie fainted and fell to the floor. Rafael noticed and pushed his way past the shocked Queen, taking his wife in his arms and trying to wake her up.

"Angie!" He said. "Wake up! It's me!" He looked at Eclipsa. "Is something happening or-"

"No, it's...it's….um…" She still had trouble finding the right word, mostly due to the fact that she was dangerously close to fainting as well. They had literally talked about Rafael standing there behind the door, and lo and behold, their predictions had come to life. It was almost as shocking as Marco's resurrection. Apparently two of her family members dying or disappearing before miraculously returning in one day had been too much for Angie to handle.

"She probably passed out from shock." Eclipsa finally said. "Why don't you set her down on the couch, and you can tell me what happened before I do the same."

Rafael did just that, and soon the two of them were sitting in chairs facing each other, with the bulky man taking occasional worried glances at his wife.

"Can I ask a few questions first?" He said. "I know you have dozens for me, and I prepared myself to answer all of them for whoever was home on the way back here, but there are a handful of things that I need to know."

"Of course." Eclipsa said. "Ask away. I can't imagine what you've just been through."

Rafael laughed deeply. "It wasn't actually that bad. Apart from being slightly uncomfortable." His smile soon faded and his gaze turned serious. "Hold on. Where is Marco?" He asked. "Is he here?"

"He's...upstairs." Eclipsa said, dreading telling Rafael about all the horrid things he went through during the day. "We should probably leave him alone for now."

"Why?" Rafael asked. "Is something wrong with him? Is he sick?"

Eclipsa shook her head. "It's much worse than that I'm afraid. Simply put, Marco's been through a lot today, and along the way it required him to go to the hospital."

"Hospital?!" Rafael exclaimed. "I thought he was going on a beach day with Star! He-wait. Did he almost drown or something?"

"No." Eclipsa said, bracing herself for when she inevitably revealed the truth. "Much worse than that as well."

"Then what happened?" He asked, growing more panicked by the second.

Eclipsa took a deep breath. She knew Rafael was going to keep prodding her, so there was no point in keeping it in. Unfortunately, she couldn't help herself from trying to soften the entire whole story.

"Star and myself believe that while they were at the beach, something took hold of Marco and he had a few...bad dreams, so to speak." She said. "The thing that possessed him-"

"Possessed him?!" Rafael said. "Like a ghost or something?"

"Not entirely." Eclipsa replied. "An entity. A very powerful entity that is possibly responsible for every event involving Bren up to this point."

"That's...definitely saying something." Rafael said. "What happened next?"

Eclipsa clenched her teeth. "Forgive me if I pause often during this, but the part will be rather hard for me to tell, especially considering that you're his father and I know how much a child's safety means to a parent."

Rafael winced and his eyes gripped to the floor, now understanding the severity of how much Marco had been through in his absence.

"Tell me." He said. "Whatever it is, I...I need to know."

Eclipsa nodded. "Alright." She breathed. "Now a lot of this was a first hand account from Star, so I have my doubts whether all of it is completely true, as I'm not sure if any of her memories were damaged because of the days events."

"Damaged memories?!" Rafael cried out, spouting one shocked question after the other. "I thought my mijo was the one who had been through a lot today. What happened to Star?"

"That's part of the story." Eclipsa said. "So Marco got possessed, had a nightmare at the beach, and Star said he wasn't himself after that. Eventually your wife arrived to take them home, but when they got there, it seems that Marco wanted to get revenge against Bren, by Star didn't let him because she thought he was being rash and would get himself killed in the process. They argued, it escalated, and eventually...it evolved into a full-blown fight."

"A fight?" Rafael repeated, his eyes blown open.

"Yes." Eclipsa said. "And Star lost. Then Marco took off to fight Bren. Angie came home, found Star, and then she contacted me to get Janna so the four of us could save Marco. We went as fast as we could, but…" She took a deep breath. "We were too late."

"Too late?" Rafael asked, still noticeably reeling from the news that his son and girlfriend had fought each other. "What do you mean by too late?"

The next part would be the worst of it, so Eclipsa knew that she just had to prepare herself and say it aloud.

After that, it would be easier. Sure, things still went horribly after that, but it wasn't as bad as Marco's dying.

"When we got there…" She continued. "Marco was in really bad shape. He had lost his fight to Bren ten times worse than Star had lost hers to him, so we had to rush him to the hospital. But on the way there…"

"..."

She paused and tried to speak, but the words refused to leave her mouth, much to Rafael's irritation.

"Why did you stop?" He asked. "What happened next? What happened to my mijo?"

Eclipsa looked into his eyes. Both sets had the same look in them. Dread, and fear that something terrible was about to happen next. "His heart stopped, and he died." She said. "But don't worry, he-"

Too late. Before she could say anything more, Rafael's eyeballs rolled into his head, he fell over, and then flopped onto the floor, having fainted just like Angie did. Eclipsa sat there for a moment, mouth hung slightly open, before groaning in response and dragging him over to the couch where he had placed Angie. She set him on the floor beside it, stared at him for a moment, and then walked over to the kitchen, looking for the coffee maker.

Once she found it, she yelled as loud as she could, her voice somehow being deadpan in the process, "Marco! Your father came home! I don't think Bren was the one to save him by the way! Come downstairs and...say hello...or…...oh forget it." She buried her tired face in her hands as she tried and failed to lean back in the wooden stool she was sitting in, and then remembered something important.

She got up, walked back into the living room, grabbed the phone she had been using earlier and placed it to her ear.

"I'm back." She said. "Sorry for the wait. I was preoccupied and-"

"No need to explain. I heard everything." The mayor said. "You never put the phone on hold, and besides, it was also on speaker. I heard every single word. So I guess this means there's no need to send the police for that kidnapped man anymore, right? Considering that he's...no longer kidnapped."

Eclipsa took a moment to process this and then responded. "You're half right." She said, choosing to not make a comment about the part where the mayor was listening the whole time. "Yes, Rafael is no longer kidnapped. But we still need the police to arrest those followers. Unfortunately, as he's passed out at the moment and didn't give me any information before doing so, we're still in the dark for the time being."

"Then wake him up." The mayor suggested. "Shouldn't be too hard. Just get some cold water or something and dump it on his face."

"An excellent suggestion, _if _things were that easy." Eclipsa huffed. "I just told him his son died and he fainted before I could explain that he had come back to life. Well, physically at least. I think he's currently dead inside…"

"What was that last part?"

"Nothing." Eclipsa said. But the point is that there is still a lot more I haven't explained to him. I need to take this slow and easy, for his sake. And forcefully waking him is definitely not within those guidelines. And besides, without a hostage, those followers have nothing now. I doubt they're going to try kidnapping someone for a _third _time."

"Are you sure?"

"...No." Eclipsa admitted, knowing that ignoring them entirely for the time being would be foolish. "Okay. Change of plans. Have the police go around town and patrol the area for any signs of Mina's posse. I'll call you back once Rafael's woken up again and given me the information we need to settle this once and for all."

"Got it." The mayor said. "I'll get on it. But try and do it quickly. I'd like to handle this situation before Bren takes advantage of all the panic."

With that, the line went dead. Eclipsa set the phone down and rubbed her face before once again taking a seat on a kitchen stool, waiting for the two slumbering Diazes to wake up from their unintended nap.

Then she realized she forgot something important.

She hadn't put more coffee on for herself.

* * *

Upstairs, a minute or so earlier, in a darkened room with all the curtains drawn and lights off, Marco Diaz sat quietly on his bed as he listened to the shouts from downstairs. Something from Eclipsa. Something about how his father had come home, and that he should go downstairs. Marco ignored this and didn't bother getting up from the bed, although he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the news, surprised by how fast Bren or the police or whoever it was that saved him had accomplished this task. However, this small gesture was the only movement he made, and his expression didn't change in the slightest. He felt stone-dead inside.

And that now familiar feeling had persisted ever since the flashback he had, the one that felt like his brain had been dumped in a vat of boiling water. In fact, it had been growing in the back of his mind the whole damn _day_, a feeling that came with an abyss of hopelessness and dread, and the flashback, the nosebleed that accompanied it, and smashing the back of his head against the pavement was what finally allowed it to break free from its prison and come to the surface.

But this feeling was in no way a normal feeling. It wasn't like being happy, sad, angry and or any kind of simple emotion like that. This one was something he felt in every one of his senses, like it had come to life and was now standing in front of him.

He could hear the whispers and high-pitched ringing sound that came with it, which was like a thousand voices speaking at once. His ears felt like they were having a migraine.

He could almost taste it as well, and on the tip of his tongue he could feel the blood he had in his mouth just before he died, Star's sobbing face being the last thing he saw before pitch black took over. He hadn't even eaten anything since then, so the metallic flavor would still be there even if he _wasn't _having a breakdown.

The smell, meanwhile, was like a thick smoke, similar to that time Marco walked past a burning building whilst coming home from school. It had traveled through the air and invaded every space it could like some kind of infection, covering the sky above and almost blocking out the sun. It took hours for the fire department to put it out, and by then it had already spread to three other buildings and killed five people. All the people of Echo creek make an silent agreement that day to never again speak of the event. Some things were best left forgotten after all.

And as for touch? That was the worst one of all. Even if he wanted to, (which he most certainly didn't) Marco couldn't quite physically touch the dread that had polluted his soul. But he felt the pain. His nerve endings were screaming at him like he was being skinned alive. A feeling he had already been unfortunate enough to experience once before, back at the beach, when the sand swallowed him up in his dream and dragged him down to that arena.

He wished for it to stop. He just wanted it-no, he wanted _everything _to go away and for him to be at peace for the day. He could feel his psyche beginning to crack. He knew he couldn't go downstairs and see his father, lest he risk the possibility of something else happening to him. Then he would go insane and be committed to an insane asylum, never to see Star again.

Wait…

Star…

His mood improved by a minuscule amount as he remembered the last time he saw her, when she had blown him a kiss back at the hospital. Nothing that occurred today had damaged their relationship. Not his torture dreams, not him beating her up, and especially not him dying. If anything, that last one might have only strengthened it. Now she would never want to be apart from him again.

He knew what he was doing this for now. Star was the only thing keeping him going at this point. She had comforted him through all this. She had helped anyway she could and refused to get medical treatment until she _knew _he was okay. All of it was for him. He had to return the favor anyway he could.

He couldn't give up. For her, he couldn't give up and let himself go mad. She couldn't live without him, and vice-versa. Marco stood up. Together, they would save Tom, kill Bren, and make sure that Earthni became the paradise that it should be. No more people like Mina. No more enemies trying to murder them. No more of _any_ of that.

Just them. Just the world. And maybe…just maybe...

He walked over to his desk and grabbed his wallet off the top of it before opening it up and grabbing the ring inside that Star's parents had given him. He looked at it for a long time, fantasizing about all the wonderful experiences that they would share together in the future.

And maybe when the time was right, he would ask her to be his lifelong partner, his soulmate, his wife.

Then all would be right in the world.

He clutched the ring to his chest and flopped onto his bed, falling asleep in an instance. And with that ring helping him through it when Star wasn't there, the nightmares of the day's events didn't ever appear.

Only the face of the person he loved, staring down at him like a guardian angel.

* * *

"Where is he?!"

"I don't know! He was right here!"

"Then find him you worthless reprobates! if I don't have him right in front of me in the next five minutes, then I'm feeding you to a pack of wild dogs!"

Downtown in the town's official stereotypical abandoned warehouse, it was chaos. Rafael's escape has proved to be quite a bother for all of them. And in the meantime, one of the guards had disappeared and vanished into thin air.

Not that anyone really cared about that though, considering that something more important was going on at the moment.

"FIND HIM!" One of them screeched, having already made themselves de-facto leader. (His real name was Tim.) "If we don't find him we have nothing! Nothing! Everything we've done is pointless! What would Mina-"

"PRAISE MINA." Two dozen voices rang out.

"Praise Mina." Tim said proudly. "Now…...FIND HIM!"

Nobody argued with this order. If Rafael was truly lost, then Tim was right. They had no leverage, and they would all be thrown in prison for the second time once Rafael reported them to the police and the Mewnian knights.

So in short, they were screwed. _Again._

"He's not here!" Somebody yelled, walking over to Tim. "We searched the entire warehouse. He's long gone."

Tim growled and punched a nearby wall. "DAMMIT!" He yelled, before pulling back and cradling his wrist, nearly broken from slamming his hand into concrete.

"Dammit…" He repeated. "Okay, get everyone over here. We're going to have to figure out a new plan."

Shouts and footsteps echoed throughout the building as all of the followers ran over to Tim and stood patiently in front of him like a flock of pigeons waiting to be fed by a person on a park bench.

"Listen up you mugs." Tim said. "If Rafael's gone, then we have to be too. We have no more leverage to use against anybody, because he was the only thing we had. Our only hope now is to get the hell out of Earthni and maybe, _just maybe, _we can try and start a new life."

Everyone stood in stunned silence.

"But-but what about the vision?" Someone asked. "About a monster free Mewni? The one that Mina-

"PRAISE MINA."

"...Praise Mina. The one that Mina died for?"

Tim nodded his head solemnly. "I know. I'm sorry. But the way we're going, that vision will never come to pass. Our enemies are too powerful. The enemies of our enemies are too powerful. With both of them working against us, there's no chance. This is the way it has to be. We failed. It's time to accept that fact."

Nobody spoke. Some were looking like they wanted to be comforted after hearing this news. One or two of them were even wiping tears of sorrow from their eyes.

"Now." Tim said, breaking the brief tranquility. "Our first step at leaving should be to-"

_Riiiiiiiinnnnnnngggggg...riiiiiiiinnnnnnngggggg…._

Tim stopped mid-syllable and everyone turned their heads to the right as the sound of a phone ringing rang throughout the warehouse. But they all knew that this wasn't just an ordinary phone. It was the one their boss used to talk to them. The one that was used only in times of emergency. And as it rang and rang with no one answering, everyone started thinking the same thing, but only one person dared to say it aloud.

"D-does he know?" They asked, their voice quivering.

'No, he shouldn't know.' Tim thought. 'Rafael went missing less than a half-hour ago. There's no way Brudo is already aware of this. Unless he was someone watching us the whole time…' Tim gulped as he thought about the implications of that. If Brudo had been spying on them ever since they arrived, then he had likely heard everything. About their secret plans to betray his worthless monster hide and take the town for themselves.

If he knew…then the odds were that the police would come busting in at any moment.

As Tim got more and more nervous, the phone continued to ring. The tone almost seemed to get louder as it went on, as if it was angry at being ignored.

"Should somebody pick that up?"

Tim snapped back to the real world and glanced at the phone. He decided that someone should. Without saying a word, he walked over to the phone and picked it up.

"H-hello?" He said fearfully, fully expecting the phone to somehow blow up in his hand and end his miserable existence.

"This is Brudo." The voice on the other end said, although it sounded like Brudo was suffering from whooping cough. "Who am I speaking to?"

"Uh, Tim. Sir." Tim stuttered.

"...Right. You. Whatever." "Brudo" said, no doubt not even knowing who Tim was. "Listen, have you found Rafael yet? I know he escaped, so there's no point in denying it. I know _everything_."

Tim winced. Yup. He knew. Only thing he could do now was hope that Brudo was in a good mood.

"We haven't." He said. "We think he escaped the warehouse and is somewhere in the town."

Silence on the other end of the line. 'Here it comes.' Tim thought. 'He's going to fall the police, and there's no way we'll be able to make it out of town in time. Guess it was fun while it lasted.'

"Okay." Brudo said, without any emotion. Tim raised an eyebrow at this, perplexed that Brudo had such a nonreaction to it. "I understand. All of you come done to the mansion so we can discuss our next move."

"But-but it's going to be really hard to get across town without being seen-"

"DO IT!" Brudo screeched. Tim reacted instinctively by holding the phone as far away from him as he could. _That _was the reaction he was expecting. Clearly Brudo was trying his hardest to keep his cool, and his hardest wasn't quite good enough.

"Okay! Okay!" Tim said. "We'll be there in a bit."

"A half-hour, no more, no less." Brudo said. "Take any longer than that and the deal is off." With that, the line went dead and Tim carefully set the phone down. He turned back to the rest of Mina's posse, who had been waiting and sweating in place the entire time.

"New plan." Tim said. "New orders from Brudo. He knows everything, and now we're heading to his mansion so we can figure out what to do next."

"To the mansion?" Someone said. "That's all the way across town! We'll never make it there without being seen! We haven't even changed out of these clothes!"

"I know, but we have no other choice." Tim said. "If we don't do it, then our deal with him is off and we're on our own. As much as I hate, we need him if we hope to accomplish anything."

"Didn't you say just a few minutes ago that it was over and that we failed?" Someone else asked.

"Yes, but that was _before _Brudo called us and gave us a new chance." Tim sneered at him. "The only chance we have. Now everyone get ready to leave. We're going to Mansion Avarius, and that's final."

While a few people still wanted to protest Tim's decision, especially from those who didn't even know who he was, (which was most of them), they knew that time was of the essence. Everyone crowded around the exit to the warehouse and then set off on Tim's order, making sure that it was impossible for anyone to spot them as they snuck around town.

The pieces were slowly falling into place.

* * *

After an half an hour of sneaking around town, running through allies, and hiding behind any miscellaneous street objects they could find, Mina's posse had finally made it to Mansion Avarius, and were staring at it from behind a nearby bush, looking like a bunch of paparazzi waiting for a celebrity to exit their house.

"Alright." Tim said, taking charge yet again. "This is what we do. Brudo said he left the door unlocked for us. Since we don't have to worry about that, the only thing we _do _have to worry about is not being seen. I think our best chance is to get in while no one's looking."

"Duh." Someone else said. "What else were we gonna do? Announce to the world that we're currently entering the mansion while walking as slowly as possible?"

"Shut up. And _don't _talk back or disrespect me like that." Tim hissed, sounding like an angry parent berating their child. "In case you've forgotten, Brudo has made me the leader of this whole operation, and as leader, I will not allow any insubordination." Tim then grinned widely, fully expecting this to work and make everyone follow him without question.

It didn't, and one of the followers quickly announced their displeasure with it, his voice sounding like that of an Irish chipmunk.

"Leader? Leader?!" They exclaimed, gawking at him. "Brudo didn't make you the leader of _anything._ In fact, I remember that when he called us, he didn't even know who you were at first! You only took control because you literally said to all of us, "do what I say and we will find Rafael. I'm sure of it." And guess what? We didn't find him. He's gone, and he brought our leverage against Eclipsa with him. So now because of you, we're hiding behind a bunch of bushes like a pack of children playing hide and seek against the townsfolk."

"I mean…" Someone else started, butting into the conversation. "We've been doing just that ever since we broke out of-"

"Shut up." Two voices said simultaneously, specifically Tim and the follower he was arguing with. (His real name was Doug-Doug.) Tim and Doug-Doug then glared at each other, annoyed by the mere fact that they had said it together.

"Alright." Tim said, getting up in Doug-Doug's face and attempting to take charge again. "Here's how it's going to go. You can blab all day long about how I'm a terrible leader, but it doesn't make a difference. Everybody here that isn't you will still listen to me, no matter what."

"Wanna bet?" Doug-Doug asked, refusing to back down. "Because I'm sure that most of the people here don't even know your _name_."

Tim chuckled. "We'll see." He stood up slightly and got everyone's attention by whistling a few times. "Everyone!" He announced. "Our fellow follower Doug-Doug has claimed that none of you know who I am and likely don't respect me, So I, Tim, your leader, have decided to officially excommunicate him from our-"

"Who are you?" Someone asked, tilting their head at him like a confused puppy.

Tim gaped at the follower who had said this, almost like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "T-tim." He stuttered. "I literally just told you that, and as your leader, I have decided to-"

"Who made you leader?" Another asked, sounding slightly miffed by the proclamation. "Why should the leader be someone who we don't even know?" This was met with several murmurs of agreement but the rest of the posse, and Tim suddenly became more enraged at them than at Doug-Doug.

"Brudo did!" He lied. "Brudo told me that-"

"No he didn't!" Doug-Doug interrupted, sensing an opportunity. "Brudo didn't make you the leader of anything!" He said, repeating the same things that he had told Tim earlier. "You just took control!" He turned towards the rest of the group. "You all saw it, didn't you? You all saw how he took control and didn't give us a chance to speak up before he started giving orders!"

"..."

"What?" Doug-Doug asked, befuddled by the sudden silence.

"Who...are you?"

Doug-Doug almost facepalmed right then and there. While he understood that most of Mina's (praise Mina) followers were not ranked high in the intelligence scale, as well as the fact that some were human and this not as knowledgeable about what went done on Mewni, this was something else. Somehow they had forgotten that out of all the Solarians, every single one of them, Mina (praise Mina) had chosen him to battle Eclipsa first. And while the battle had ended in his defeat, he had still completed his primary objective of buying enough time so that the others could get ready.

'So then not knowing who I am is impossible!' He thought. 'Unless...they're really just that stupid." He sighed in defeat. "Only one way to find out."

"My name is Doug-Doug." He said. "Don't any of you remember me?"

"I thought your name was Carl…" Someone muttered.

"Nono, Carl was that doctor at the hospital you told me about that one time." His friend said. "The one that liked to make terrible puns."

"Oh yeah...may Mewni rest his poor soul."

"He-he's not dead dude."

After this rather moronic exchange of words, everyone started arguing amongst themselves, and soon it was nothing short of chaos. Both Tim and Doug-Doug watched in shock at what was occurring, some of them not even talking about names but about random topics."

"No, you're wrong!"

"Oh yeah? Well, I say _my _Solarian armor looked best. Wouldn't you agree!"

"They all looked the same! And even if they didn't mine would have looked best."

"I still think you're wrong."

"Wait, what's going on again?"

"BE QUIET!" Tim screeched, unable to continue listening to one more word of this incoherent babble. Everyone stopped talking and looked his way, all glaring at the person who had so rudely put an end to their conversations.

"I have heard enough…" He said, almost whispering. "I...am done. We are getting nowhere. Brudo is no doubt wondering where we are, so we can't have any more distractions. We're going inside, and that is final. We wait until the coast is clear, and then as a group, we run as fast as we can to the door. Then I open it, and we all pile in. The end. Now, does anyone have a problem with this?"

Nobody spoke. Even Doug-Doug, who still hated Tim to the extreme, was glad that everyone had finally shut up. He still didn't accept Tim as leader, but it would have to do. For now at least. Once inside, Brudo would sort the whole mess out, and

"Good." Tim muttered, seeing no response from anyone. "Now on my signal, we all run, understand? I don't care if you know who I am or accept me as leader or not. This is what we're doing."

Surprisingly, there wasn't a single word of protest from anybody. It was as if Mina (praise) herself had given the order, and her words, will, and voice were speaking through Tim like he had been possessed by her ghost.

And so, they responded with the only appropriate response to such a speech.

"Okay."

Now that this was done and Doug-Doug was left to grumble to himself, everyone got in position, putting their imaginary running shoes on. They all kept a close eye on the sidewalk, waiting for the right moment. Once the pedestrians had cleared and nobody was watching, Tim whisper-yelled "go!" and they all took off.

Or tried to at least.

From the very start it was a disaster. Ten of them tripped over each other and fell to the ground in miniature explosions of dust, scrambling to get which only resulted in them falling over again.

Several more were pushed out of the way by their ilk, resulting in _more _people falling over. Like a line of dominoes, the entire crowd flopped over like a sack of potatoes. It took them all a moment to gain their bearings, and they decided it was best to just walk, the fact that someone might see notwithstanding.

Once they reached the front door however, they all thought they heard someone coming down the street, and Tim frantically through the door open and yelled at them to get in. Unfortunately, they all obeyed this command at the same time, and more chaos ensued. Imagine the three Stooges trying to fit in a tight doorway all at once, only if this time there were two dozen stooges.

Tim was the first to make it through, covered in bruises and groaning. Then Doug-Doug, and then the rest one at a time. Once the last person had made it through, they shut the door bending them and fell to the floor.

"That could have gone better." Tim said, stating the obvious. "But it worked. We're inside now, and I'm sure that nobody saw us. Now all that's left is to speak to Brudo."

Tim then clambered to his feet and looked around the massive foyer for Brudo, expecting him to be there waiting for them, but he was nowhere to be found. The only thing in the middle of it all was a large chair sitting right in front of the stairs that led to the second floor. The back was facing towards them, so Tim couldn't see exactly who was sitting in it, but the arms that were set on the chairs armrests certainly weren't Brudo's, and that was enough for Tim to note it as a red flag.

"Excuse me." He said. "Are you-"

The figure stood up and faced them. Every one of Mina's followers suddenly felt an intense feeling of fear strike their heart as Bren appeared, broken phone in his hand and smirking at them. Before anyone could say anything, they heard a shuffling shuffling sound and looked to their left, where Tom appeared wearing a deadpan expression. He walked over to Bren and stood by his side, and Tim knew they were fucked.

"Wha-what are _you _doing here?" He asked. He knew who Bren was. Everyone knew who Bren was. They had seen the wanted poster. And even though he had killed Mina (praise), they were more terrified than angry. This was the end for them. Anyone that had killed their goddess Mina (prai-oh screw it, who cares) must surely be unstoppable. They had no chance.

"Reasons." Bren said, taking a step towards them. "I'll make this quick, because I need to be quick. You morons are useless and I can't you leave this place alive, so I'm going to kill each and every one of you. If you try and escape, I'll have Tom burn you to a crisp." He cracked his knuckles and took a deep breath. "So without any further ado...let's get started."

Almost on instinct, Tom quickly took a few steps backwards and prepared himself for the gore-a-thon that was soon to follow, already having been informed that he wasn't going to be the main participant in this. As Prince of the Underworld, he was used to this kind of stuff, but this…...this was something he didn't want to see.

"I normally wouldn't do this myself…" Bren stated, walking towards the followers while they trembled in place. "But hey. After today, I think _everyone _needs a chance to let loose."

He moved forward, grabbing Tim by the throat before he could even react. And a second later, the sounds of screaming and splattering began and started to echo throughout the house, unheard by the oblivious people on the outside.

And now that almost every piece had been put in the proper positions, the only thing left was to start taking them off the board, one by one.

* * *

"Okay, they'll wake up in five...four...three...two...one...and now!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Please wake up?" A faint voice pleaded, followed by a sigh of defeat. Both of these things were the only sounds coming from inside the Diaz household, apart from maybe some distinct breathing that could only be heard if one was standing next to the source of said noise. And when this muffled breathing continued to be barely audible to the world around it, a loud groan was heard, as well as a sipping sound as Eclipsa, bored halfway out of her mind, emptied her fifth cup of coffee and set the mug down on the table.

At this point she could be called an addict. But who could blame her? The caffeine was the only thing keeping her going at the moment, and she had to resist the temptation of falling asleep and just bringing the day to a close. The obnoxious, long, horrendously bad day that felt like it had stenched on for weeks if not months.

But she couldn't give in. There was still work to do, a group of morons to arrest, and a severely traumatized boy to console.

Although by now she figured that the last part would be best left to that boy's parents, as Eclipsa doubted that anything she said could really help him in the long run. For that, he needed help from his real family. The ones who knew him best. And despite the fact that Star had told her at one point that she knew him best (which apparently had led to some incident with a painting), his parents would also not certainly do just as well. At least on the comforting side.

But this was, of course, easier said than done. Marco hadn't been the only one suffering. His parents had as well, after learning about what had happened to their child. They would need therapy just as much as he did after today.

…

Well, okay, that's not true. Marco's situation definitely took precedence, all things considered. But they would still need some form of help. Their son had literally been beaten to death and resurrected, and they weren't there. Eclipsa knee how they probably felt. Like they had failed their duty as parents, letting him die and being unable to stop it. And because of this, because they-no, because _all _of them had to tried and failed to prevent it, he had been transformed into a depressed, stone-cold shell of a person.

In the end, they hadn't lost him. He had come back.

But at the same time, he was no longer the same person he once was.

And Eclipsa was certain of it. By taking one look in his eyes, she could see that there were a few small pieces of his soul that weren't there anymore. It was like staring at an incomplete jigsaw puzzle. And each piece represented a different part of emotion. What was missing now? Joy? Excitement? Optimism?

Happiness?

It had to be something along those lines. Eclipsa hadn't even seen him so much as smile, not to mention the way he talked was like…

like…

no…

That was wrong.

She _had _seen him smiling. Back at the hospital, when he was with Star. Just as they were about to leave, she saw a grin come across his face as the two teens bid each other goodbye. And again, almost, back in her car, when he mentioned going back to the hospital to see her. They had been a half-grin. The third and final time was when she found him still alive and well, and Star had tackled him to the ground in a hug. He had been smiling plenty then. And all three times they involved her, the life of his life. Because of Star, a small semblance of the person he used to be was breaking through the veil that held the true Marco. Kind, loving, and someone that they could all rely on to listen to them, instead of just walking away like he had a million better things to do.

That was it. It was Star. She was the only thing that was allowing him to push forward, wasn't she? The one shining light in a sea of darkness. It was like Eclipsa thought earlier. She was the one who knew him best. She was the only one who could break him out of this mood entirely.

'If that's truly the case…' The Queen thought, slightly perturbed by the sudden realization. 'Then whenever he gets help for the things he's going through, Star _needs _to be there. Regardless of whether the hospital approves of it or not. The odds are that she is the only thing keeping him from sinking so far down that he would _never _be able to climb back up to the surface.'

She then glanced over at Rafael and Angie, still snoozing away and dreaming about who knows what. Probably something unpleasant.

"And they'll have to know about this as well.' She thought. 'They will want to help him. They will do everything they can to help him. But Marco barely reacted to Angie when he walked through the front door. If that's not foreshadowing for the fact that he doesn't want help from his parents then I don't know what is. From his perspective, Star is all he has left, and now she has to show him that that's not true. That there's _more _to living than just her. Like how he lived before the events of today…'

Eclipsa thought about this with almost one hundred percent certainty, treating it like it wasn't some theory she had come up with but rather a full-blown fact. In her mind, she had enough evidence for it.

So now she just had to make sure that those two got back together as soon as possible. She would have to schedule another hospital visit or something. Maybe early in the morning, to get Marco in a relatively good mood straight off. Either that or she could have Janna hypnotize him into _thinking _Star was with him. Cruel, possibly, but for the greater good. He had to remain as happy as possible. Lest he sink down into the void that had contaminated his mind, and decide that that place was better for him than anywhere else.

As this train of thought finished up, Eclipsa almost laughed, hardly remembering a time where she cared so much for someone else's well being and so little for her own. But a within like this required it, and so she would have to sacrifice a piece of her own sanity for the moment, making sure that Marco was in good spirits.

Just as she was about to chuckle to herself, a loud groan from the other room rang throughout the house like an airhorn, signifying that someone had woken up. Eclipsa practically threw her chair aside as she dashed into the living room and saw Rafael rubbing his head and slowly getting off the ground.

"Ugh...what happened?" He asked, the question posed to anyone that was listening. He then checked his surroundings and a look of confusion spread across his face. "Why am I on the floor? Did I fall asleep?"

"Technically, you fainted." Eclipsa said, making Rafael look up at her in surprise. "Do you, uh, remember what we were talking about?"

Rafael rubbed his head again and gave it some thought. "I-I think." He said. "I came home, Angie fainted, and then I asked you some questions. I recall it all going dark when I asked about…" His eyes suddenly went wide. "Marco!" He exclaimed. "You said he died!"

"Please don't pass out again." Eclipsa said. "There's a lot I need you to tell me about-"

"I have to check on him!" Rafael yelled, and without a moment's notice he ran into the foyer and sprinted upstairs, taking the steps five at a time. Eclipsa heard loud thuds as he reached the landing in the second floor, as well as heavy footsteps as he made his way over to Marco's room,

Then, a door creaked. A slight pause followed. The silence was almost deafening. After that, the footsteps returned and Rafael came back down the stairs, looking like someone had rejected him.

"Well?" Eclipsa asked. "How is he?"

"He is asleep." Rafael replied with a saddened tone. "So I thought it would be best to not wake him."

Eclipsa nodded and she once again took a seat in the same chair she had sat in earlier, and Rafael did the same with his chair a moment later.

"How did it happen?" He asked. "How was he brought back?"

"As much as I'd love to answer that...I'm afraid I need to ask my own questions now." Eclipsa said, knowing that the mayor was likely tired of waiting. "I need you to tell me everything you know about Mina's followers. Where they are, where they will be, and how many of them escaped and grouped together."

Rafael paused and looked like he was about to protest, but a moment later he sighed and realized that arresting Mina's followers were more important than his own feelings at the moment.

"I see." He said with a tone of defeat. "I understand. I probably should have just let you question me first, rather than fainting and wasting everyone's time." Eclipsa was about to respond, but after he said this, he looked her dead in the eye and glared at her with neither contempt nor approval, neither disgust nor fear. Just a glare with no ill will towards the Queen behind it, but also intense enough that it would make anyone buckle under it.

"But after that…" He continued. "I want you to tell me everything. From start to finish, and leaving out no details. No questions either. I'm not going to be asking you anything. Just tell me the whole story of while I was gone. Every single bit of it."

Eclipsa nodded, trying to ignore the glare he was giving her that felt like he was trying and failing to read her mind. "I will. I promise." She said. "But...now that we're in agreement, I think I-"

"Of course." Rafael interjected, and just like that, his glare vanished and he put on his classic smile. "Ask away. I'll answer all your questions as truthfully and as accurately as my memory allows."

"Excellent." Eclipsa said, putting on a smile of her one before clearing her throat. "First things first...how did you escape exactly? I know I should probably be asking something more important first, but this one had been at the back of my mind ever since you showed up, and I can't ignore it any longer."

The moment she asked this, Rafael let out a bellowing laugh, as if she had brought up a hilarious memory and not one she assumed would be terrifying. After a few seconds of this, he calmed himself down and answered, his voice filled with great amusement.

"That's quite a story. And complete proof that those people are completely incompetent at anything they do." He said. "Basically, they had me tied up in a warehouse with some cheap rope that looked like it had been fished out of a dumpster. Two of them were guarding me, but eventually one left to go grab a snack or something. I then came up with the idea to convince the other one to untie me in exchange for cooking him a meal, as he had been complaining about food for a while. It eventually worked, he undid my restraints, and I knocked him out with a karate move that Marco showed me."

"..."

Eclipsa remained silent after this lengthy explanation, as if simply hearing it had disturbed her to the point that she became a mute. Rafael took notice almost immediately and prayed that she wasn't about to faint just like he had.

"Are you okay?" He asked. "If...you need me to explain in a little more detail, I can, but I think that it might get a little repetitive-"

"No, it's...it's not that." Eclipsa said, frantically blinking as if she had woken up from a bad dream. "It's just that I can't believe that that food plan of yours worked. I knew they were gullible and unoriginal, but this goes beyond that. This-this guard actually untied you, _the prisoner that was their only leverage against the town, _under the pretense that you would cook him something. I-I'm surprised that they even know how to feed themselves in the first place."

"I was surprised too, but I definitely wasn't complaining." Rafael said. "I saw the gullibility that they had, used it to my advantage, and it worked perfectly. Although I must say, I am confused as to why the first question you asked was how I escaped, and not how they kidnapped me in the first place."

Eclipsa flinched like someone had pinched her. The question hanging around in the back of her head notwithstanding, normally in a situation like this the first thing she would do is ask how the person had been taken in the first place, just like Rafael said. This way, she and the mayor could enact laws that would nothing like it could ever happen again.

However, in _this _case she figured that the followers stupidity had made them unable to come up with a better than waiting until Rafael was line, grabbing him, and then throwing him in the back of a truck or something. And besides banning trucks or having security cameras installed on every street corner (neither of which would fly with the public), there wasn't really anything they could do to prevent something like that.

But now that he had put the question in her mind, she just decided to go with it and ask.

"So...then how did they capture you?"

"Oh, they just waited until I was alone, grabbed me, and threw me into the back of a truck." Rafael answered. "Then they took me to their warehouse hideout and tied me up."

'Figures.' Eclipsa thought. 'Should I even be surprised at this point?'

"Then what happened?" She asked, trying to get the main conversation back on track. "Did you come straight back here, or did you try to contact the police?"

"Actually neither." Rafael said. "After I knocked that man unconscious, I stayed in the warehouse for a bit and found a good hiding place."

"What? Why?" Eclipsa asked him, dumbfounded.

"Because I figured that I could be more useful this way." He replied. "You see, by that point these followers had already mentioned several crucial bits of information amongst themselves which I overheard. Almost like they assumed I wasn't there at all, or that I would forget later."

"Not surprising, all things considered." Eclipsa mumbled. "So did you actually hear anything useful?"

"I heard everything!" Rafael exclaimed. "They talked about everything they were planning and who they were working for. I assumed it was because their memories are so terrible that they have to keep reminding themselves of things."

Eclipsa was about to make a comment about how that was probably true, but something Rafael said had stuck with her. 'Who are they working for?' She thought. 'If we know that...then that might be it. Assuming they're not Bren, which they're _definitely _not, then we could just find and arrest them like that!' She snapped her fingers, prompting a confused look from Rafael. 'Hm. Then this takes precedence over all else. The time for any other questions can wait for later. For now, it's time to end this silly charade.'

"Who are they working for?" She asked. "Who's in charge?"

Rafael took a deep breath. "Lord Brudo." He said. "I heard one of them mention it, and he seemingly even called them on a phone while I was there. If what they said is true, then right now every single one of them is at his mansion."

'Brudo?!' Eclipsa thought, her eyes bugging out. 'He's in charge?! But he's a monster! Those followers would never listen to a monster! Not unless they were completely…desperate. Which, I suppose...they...are.' She sighed and wished that it wasn't true. But a small part of her told her it was. And then she remembered what Star had said back on tax day. About how she should keep a close eye on Brudo.

If she hadn't forgotten about that, maybe things would have played out differently...

"Are you sure about this?" She asked, her tone sounding akin to that of a depressed person's.

Rafael nodded and started speaking in the same depressed tone. "I know it's hard to believe. I didn't want to believe it either at first, especially considering all that Brudo's done for the town. All the money and compassion for its plight that he gave to us. But I heard it straight from them. Brudo is their leader. Any doubts I had about it back there disappeared on my way home."

Eclipsa gulped. This was both good and bad. Good because the leader was someone they could easily take down, _and _because all the followers were at said leaders house, they could literally arrest everyone in one massive raid. But the bad part was the reaction of the townsfolk. Even though Rafael had heard it straight from the horse's mouth, he _still _had trouble believing it. He didn't _want _to. Eclipsa didn't either. It was like he had said. All the money they Brudo gave up had done so much good, and now, they were supposed to let him rot in prison? There would be an outcry, even _if _they released all the evidence for the Avarius lord's involvement.

But it wasn't like she had a choice. She had her target. The police had their target. The entire town had it's target. There was no stopping now, not after they had come so far. If she ignored this, then it would have all been for nothing. Brudo would be taken into custody, whether the people liked it or not.

She stood up and took out her phone. "I'm calling the mayor and informing him about this." She told Rafael. "Any other questions I have can and will wait for later."

"What are you going to tell him?" Rafael asked.

"What did you think?" Eclipsa said, not posing it as a question. "I'm going to tell him exactly what you told me. That Brudo is behind this, the followers are all at his mansion, and if we hurry we might be able to take them all out right now."

"Then it's really happening. Brudo is getting what's coming to him." Rafael said, before stating the thing that Eclipsa had been worried about only a moment earlier. "But I don't think the townsfolk will be particularly happy about any of this…"

"They won't be. But I don't care." Eclipsa said. She dialed the mayor's office and waited for him to answer. "I'm ending this now. With this, Mina's followers will be stopped for goods and I'll make sure they get put in a prison that they can _never _escape from."

Rafael almost flicked her away from the Queen, taken aback by the raw anger in her voice. 'Marco wasn't the only one who had a terrible day, was he?' He thought. 'I'm betting it's been a living hell for everyone…'

Almost on cue, the timing coming from Eclipsa's phone stopped as the mayor himself answered, instead of the robotic desk attendant that had pushed Eclipsa to her limits the last time.

"Well?" The mayor said, knowing full well who was calling. "Are they awake?"

"Rafael is awake." Eclipsa said. "And he gave all the information we'll ever need. For whatever reason, most likely because they had no one law to turn to, Mina's morons have been taking orders from Lord Brudo, and it is possible that he is the one who broke them out as well. As of right now, all of them are at mansion Avarius. If we move fast, then we might be able to catch every last one of them."

"..."

"I know." Eclipsa said, fully expecting the mayor to be silent at first. "Brudo's done a lot for the town. But Rafael heard it from the mouths of the followers themselves. He is behind all of this, and nothing we do can change that. And time is of the essence, so don't start asking me questions about "why" or "how", because we'll deal with that later. Just tell me if you can have the police ready to head over as soon as possible."

The mayor took a deep breath. "...I can send them over there right now." He said. "I'll tell them to mobilize a swat team to infiltrate the manor and arrest them."

"Good." Eclipsa said. "In the meantime, I'll contact the Mewnian knights anyway I can and tell them to head over there as well. We might need all the help we can ge-"

"No need." The mayor said. "I already got them. After I hung up on you earlier, I made sure to send someone to go get the knights to assist us in all of this. They're with the police as well. I can send both groups in, the knights and a swat team. We'll make sure to hit them hard and hit them fast."

Eclipsa was briefly stunned into silence. "You're really on top of this." She pointed out. "I'm impressed."

"Thanks." The mayor said, sounding like he was smiling widely. "You just stay where you are for now. I'll send them in and call you back later to inform you on how the operation went."

"You-you don't need me for anything else?" Eclipsa asked. Truthfully, she hadn't expected to be the one earring the charge or to even be in it at all, but _she _had expected to at least _be _there when it happened. For some reason, the thought of staying here and sitting by while the police and knights risked their lives didn't sit well with her.

Although, that was their job...and she couldn't risk dying over something like this. If the fight escalated or if the followers had weapons, then it could easily turn into a bloodbath. With her in the middle.

That was not a pleasant thought.

"Not particularly…" The mayor said, answering truthfully. "Is that okay with you?"

"Yes, it's completely fine." Eclipsa lied. "I just don't want any of them to get hurt."

"Don't worry." The mayor said. "This will be a piece of cake. If those guys are anything, it's incompotent. Although I'm wondering how Brudo managed to break

them out of prison in the first place…"

"It's possible that he's not alone in this. In which case we have to be extra careful." Eclipsa suggested. "They may be incompotent, but that won't make a difference if the swat team and the knights get mobbed the second they step inside."

"Fair enough." The mayor said. "Alright then. I'm hanging up now and sending out the order out to both groups. Shouldn't take them any more than a half hour, so in the meantime, you should probably relax. You sound like you _really_ need it."

"Uh...thanks." Eclipsa said, wondering if this was really the same mayor she knew. "Same to you."

A second later, the line went dead for the second time, and Eclipsa was left alone with Rafael. She flopped herself back into her chair and decided to do exactly what the mayor told her to do: relax.

"Sooo…" Rafael said. "What are you going to do about-"

"Can I have a moment alone?" Eclipsa requested, her voice cracking. Rafael reared back in surprise and was about to push further, but after seeing the look on her face, he understood how much of a toll this was all taking on her. So instead he simply followed her advice, said "okay", and left to go get himself something to eat from the kitchen.

Once he had left, Eclipsa stared at the ceiling like it was the most fascinating thing in the world, and her mind sank into an abyss that seemed to call out to her and reminded her of all the things she still needed to do today. She groaned, stretched her limbs, and told the voices to shut up.

'Is there really no more coffee left?'

* * *

It took an hour.

After an hour of painful walking, annoying glances, and ignoring frantic questions from worried townsfolk, Brudo had finally made it back to the mansion. Tall, imposing, and looking like it had been waiting there just for him. Momentary happiness at the sight of his house was replaced with a deep feeling of dread as he opened the gate and slowly strolled up the walkway. For once, it did not feel good to be home.

He took the doorknob in his hand and hesitated. What was waiting for him on the other side was either instant death or the best luck of his life. Either Bren was there waiting for him or nobody was. Either way, he had no other path to follow. This was the only choice he could take now. If he left as he was, then he would be broke and useless, without a penny to his name. And it's not like asking the townsfolk for help would work either. They might have been worried about him because he was injured, but there was no way in a million days that they were going to give back _any _of the money he had given them. Especially considering the current state of everything…

Brudo's brow furrowed as he thought about all the other options. Ask Queen Eclipsa for help perhaps? She would likely protect him, but that would require admitting that he had been working with Bren, which would end badly. Then he would be thrown in prison like Mina's posse had. Or worse. Many citizens would no doubt want all of Bren's conspirators to die, no matter what they had done in the past.

'Wait.' He thought. 'That might not be true. I basically saved all their lives back during the demon attack by having that tax day. If I go to court for my crimes and tell them that, then it light loosen the load and…' Brudo's hopeful thought train stopped short when he realized that the tax thing hadn't even been his idea. It was someone else's. 'Ugh, no! That was Bren's idea, not mine!' He thought furiously. 'Just so Star wouldn't go insane. It won't work if I tell them that. Unless, maybe, I can convince that it was _my _idea to begin with…?'

Brudo growled in frustration when he saw another flaw to that plan. There's no way that Bren would let him say that. If he was actually captured, the little brat would tell them _everything _to ensure that anyone he worked with was dragged down with him. Brudo suspected that he was a sore loser, and that his "I want you to try and stop me" thing was a load of crap. If Star and Marco got close to stopping him, then he would show his true colors and become a writhing angry mess of a person.

Now, all this was true or maybe it wasn't. Brudo only suspected that it was. But no matter what kind of person he thought Bren was, he knew that he was the type that didn't appreciate people scheming behind his back. That was _his _thing after all.

And now he was completely at that person's mercy. Unless he acted fast. He gripped the doorknob, turned it, and flung the door open. The house inside was completely dark, with all the curtains closed and the lights off. But he didn't even care. He entered and closed the door behind him, effectively trapping himself in the darkness.

He paused once he realized his mistake.

'Okay, should have thought that one through.' He thought. 'No matter. I'll just find a light, get everything I can, load it up into that carriage at the back of the house and get out of here.'

A small voice in the back of Brudo's head reminded him of his family, the people that he would be leaving behind if he followed through with the plan. His conscience, presumably. But he waved it off.

'That doesn't matter.' He told himself. 'If I don't leave now, then it might be over. Every second I spend here _not _escaping is another second Bren has to come over and finish me off. There's no time. So get lost. I buried you years ago.'

His conscience remained quiet as Brudo straightened himself and prepared to find a light. Shouldn't be hard, there was one right in the middle of the foyer. He took a painful step forward, only to be met with something warm and wet touching the tips of his toes.

And the feeling of dread that he had earlier suddenly tripled itself.

Carefully, and with slow deliberation, Brudo knelt down and dipped his finger in the liquid, still completely blind as to what it was. He raised his finger to his nose and sniffed it, praying to anybody that was listening that it was just a water leak or a drink that one of his children had spilled earlier.

It smelled metallic. Like copper or iron.

The dread building in his gut was now so strong that Brudo almost threw up right then and there. He knew what it was. He had smelled it before. No matter what creature it was from, it was always the same. The fresh scent of blood.

Brudo took a step backwards, inching towards the door. He didn't want to know who's blood that was, and he wasn't about to let himself find out. He had to get out _now_, or else he-

*BANG*

With a popping sound that almost blew up Brudo's eardrums, the entire area was suddenly illuminated in a blinding white light, so bright that it was like looking directly at the sun. Brudo instinctively covered his eyes to protect them from the change in luminosity, although it scarcely helped. Spots danced in his vision as he turned away from lights, desperately trying to keep his eyeballs from melting inside his head.

In the distance, he thought he heard Bren's voice say, "Too bright Lucitor! Too damn bright! Turn it the fuck down or you'll ruin the atmosphere," followed by further cursing. The light then faded to a dull glow similar to a hundred candles, and Brudo rubbed his eyes desperately. Once he had regained his vision, he took his hands away from his face and looked around, now able to see what was around him.

And once he did, he _actually _threw up, his vomit splattering on the floor and making a giant mess.

At least, it would, if there wasn't a worse mess already covering every square inch of the room.

Everything around him had been painted in a new coat of crimson. The walls, floor, even the _ceiling _was drenched red with blood, dripping down onto the ground like some kind of macabre makeshift rain. But it wasn't just blood. Littering the stone floor was hundreds if not thousands of individual body parts, ranging from hearts to intestines to fingers to entire limbs, all looking like they had been torn off or out of their original host by a terrible force. Brudo almost thought they were spelling something out for a second, before he realized that it was just his imagination playing tricks on him, trying to make some sense of this whole macabre mess.

It was simply...horrific. Something the Avarius lord had never seen the likes of, and something he would never be able to forget, not even if he lived for a million years more.

And in the middle of all the carnage? Bren himself, sitting in Brudo's favorite chair, every part of him stained scarlet by the massacre. His clothes, his hands, even his damn _face _had been soaked with gore. There was no doubt that he was the one who had done this. As if Brudo even needed to ask in the first place. In his hand was a disembodied head, the expression on its face being one of terror. He tossed it in the air and caught it repeatedly like it was a baseball, all while wearing a self-satisfied and sadistic grin. Anyone looking at him would think that he was enjoying himself, and they wouldn't be more correct.

But worse was the fact that he wasn't alone. Tom, his personal demon lackey, stood in the corner of the room. Surprisingly, he was mostly clean of blood except for his boots, which were of course just as blood-red as everything else. Tom himself had a sorrowful and horrified expression on his face, as if even _he, _the literal prince of hell, was disturbed by what he just witnessed.

"My my…" Bren started, breaking the deafening silence while tightly gripping the head in his hands. "Someone hasn't been doing what they've been told..."

Brudo couldn't speak, as he was currently transfixed with terror. This was it. This was his end. If Bren wanted to, he could simply give the word and Tom would blast him with a fireball. But Brudo knew that's not what would happen. Bren was going to tear him apart like he had Mina's followers. There was no one else the blood could have belonged to after all. After all, Bren was already-

Then he realized where they were, and the other group of people that might be the remains that lay before him. A group that was much closer to him to those followers ever could be.

"My-my-my family…" He stuttered, shaking so much that he could barely speak. "Is-is this-"

"No." Bren said. "No, all of this is Mina's morons, as I'm sure you've guessed. Your family is safe. Even if you used them to break these idiots out of prison, I have no grudge against them. They simply did what you told them too. Just like _you _should have done with me…"

Brudo opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Bren reared his hand back and threw the head at Brudo like a basketball, yelling "catch", a second before he did so. Brudo shrieked and instinctively ducked, resulting in the head smacking up against the opposite wall with a loud SPLAT. It slowly slid down and hit the floor, it's dead eyes now staring at the Avarius Lord.

Brudo shuddered and turned back to Bren, who had grabbed another head from behind the chair and tossed it up and down just like with the last one.

"You know…" He said, tapping his foot against the ground. "I checked, and surprisingly, these guys actually _do _have brains. Want to see?"

"I-" Brudo started, but Bren didn't let him get any further, tightly gripping the once-living object and then squeezing it as hard as he could, resulting in the head practically exploding in his hands and showering the area in gore and brain matter. Brudo gagged and did his best to keep his lunch down, while Tom winced and looked away. Even after witnessing the hundreds of painful and inhuman tortures the Underworld could inflict on its residents, this was starting to be too much. Bren, meanwhile, looked rather amused at what he just did.

"Oops." He said, not the slightly bit disturbed by his actions. "Looks like I applied a _little _too much pressure. Ah, no matter. Plenty more where that came from." He shook the various bits of bone and blood off his hand and then reached behind the chair again, grabbing a third head in the process.

"How about this." He said, preparing to give Brudo an offer. "I'm going to ask you a couple of things, and if I like what I hear, then you don't have to witness any more heads exploding. If I don't like what I hear…"

He then crushed the head in his hands and it burst like a pumpkin, the insides of it gushing out and drenching everything around it while also providing a perfect example.

"Then that." He said, taking hold of another head soon after. (Tim's, specifically.) And I _know _you're getting ill from watching it, so why don't you do what I say for once in your pathetic life and we can get through this without any more…" He chuckled evilly in the most cliche way possible. "...bloodshed."

Brudo tried to keep his lunch down as he quickly considered his options. Earlier, he had suspected that Tom would kill him if he tried to leave. But now he wasn't so sure. The demon prince looked like he wanted no part in this and hated every second. There was a chance, however slim, that he wouldn't respond to an order from Bren.

But now Brudo wasn't so sure about Bren either. He had thought that Bren was just a pushover and not much of a threat when it came to an actual physical fight. But he was completely drenched in blood here. Tom hadn't taken part in this slaughter, it was all Bren. Who was now giggling to himself like a patient at an insane asylum.

"Ah, I know what you're thinking." Bren said, half talking, half laughing. He cleared his throat and put in the same voice he did with the (currently deceased) followers from earlier.

"Oh no." He said dramatically. "Look at all that blood. Bren did all this himself. He didn't use his demon lackey at all. What a fool I was to believe that he was a weakling and that I could probably beat him in a fight." He coughed and switched back to his normal voice. "Right? Isn't that what you were thinking?"

While Brudo didn't believe he could really beat _anyone _in an actual fistfight, the rest of Bren's imitation was right on the money, and they both knew it. Bren was just playing with Brudo at this point; he could kill him at any time he wanted. Brudo was tempted to find a way to kill himself right there, as whatever the person sitting in front of him had in store was a thousand times worse than anything he could do via suicide.

"Well?" Bren said expectantly. "Aren't you going to say defend yourself? Give me a reason as to why you should live past the next five seconds?" His tone grew noticeably angrier, as if he had a switch on his back that had just been flicked.

"I-" Brudo started. He took a deep breath. It was now or never. Truth be told, he figured that he was dead no matter what. Unless, of course, he made some kind of miraculous escape. If there was one thing that Brudo was aware of, it was the fact that Bren loved to talk. Repeating the same things over and over again. If he kept him talking, and waited until the right moment, then he _might _be able to get away.

He had no other choice. All the cards were on the table, and Bren had a full deck, whilst Brudo only had two. An ace, and a joker. One would save him, and one would mean certain death.

So he just had to play the right one.

"You've got the wrong person." Brudo said, doing his best to appear as fearless as possible. "Think about it Bren. Why would I want to help Mina's followers, and why would they help me? They hate monsters. To work with me would be to work against everything they stand for.

Bren frowned and sighed. "Don't bother. I already heard the truth from one of Mina's morons. He told me himself that you're in charge. Right before I killed him of course."

Brudo almost choked on the air he was breathing, his mind going back to the smoldering pile of bones hay he found at the sanctuary. "Then-then those bones I found at the sanctuary...was that-"

"Yup. That was them." Bren said, grabbing Tim's head by the hair and swinging it around. "I had to get rid of their corpse some way, so I burned it. Unfortunately, I understand that there must have been quite a bit of smoke when you arrived."

"No kidding." Brudo mumbled, doing his best to keep the conversation going while at the same frantically searching for another way out. "I nearly burned my lungs from all that smoke."

"Poor pitiful you." Bren said, entirely without empathy. "Alright, head-crushing question time." The head he had been swinging around like a kid with a yo-yo landed back in his hands, and he prepared it to smash them together. "Brudo. Why did you work with Mina's followers against me?"

"Because-because you were taking too long." Brudo said truthfully, suspecting that Bren would immediately know if he was lying. "You promised me revenge against Ludo, but it never came. You promised and you promised and you never delivered on that promise. So I decided to take matters into my own hands."

Bren paused, looked from side to side, and then slammed his hand together, causing Tim's vacant expression to explode outwards. Brudo turned away and felt the bile starting to rise yet again. He wasn't sure how much more this he could take.

"Why…" He groaned. "I told you the truth and-"

"Yes. You gave me the truth." Bren said, sliding another head out from behind the chair and placing it under his left foot. "It's just that I didn't particularly _like it_. You did this because you were _impatient_? Are you serious? I would have gotten you your revenge! It _would _have come to pass! I had everything planned out perfectly! But-but because you didn't want to wait a few weeks for it, you decided it was a good idea to go against me?! Have you lost your mind entirely, or at you just as stupid as Mina's little playgroup was?!"

Brudo took a step back. He had to take this in another direction. And Bren was right. He should have been more patient. He should have trusted him when he said that he had everything planned out, all those months ago.

So why didn't he? Because that wasn't like him? Because his thirst for revenge against his son was so great that he couldn't wait to see him die? What had Ludo even done in the first place? Dishonored the family name? Kicked them out of the mansion? Did he really deserve what Brudo wanted for him?

'No.' His conscience said. 'You're petty. You were petty. You only followed your gut instincts, and look where it got you. On death's door. Congratulations, you're a worthless, pathetic piece of trash."

Brudo sank where he stood as he saw that his conscience was right. He was being petty about this whole thing. Sure, Ludo had been a to his family, but he had been a pretty horrible person himself. He never cared about them. Only about stickers and more recently, revenge. He had failed as a father and as a person.

He had failed at everything.

"Why so glum?" Bren asked, sensing the aura of despondency that was practically radiating off of him. "Oh wait…...I know what it is. I've seen _that _look before. That's the look of someone who's failed at everything. Failed their family, their friends, and life itself." He leaned back in the chair and rested his hands on his chin. "I'm happy that you finally see the truth about yourself Brudo. And all it took was a good talking-too from me. Hm, when this is all over, do you think I should become a therapist for people like you? While I don't really see myself moving into that profession, I _do _believe that-"

"Just get to the fucking point." Brudo demanded, staring blankly at the ground.

Bren did a double-take. "Excuse me?"

"Get to the damn point." Brudo repeated. "Either finish your stupid speech or kill me."

"Well, I'm not done with my "stupid" speech." Bren said, pressing his foot down on the head that was placed below it. "I still have a lot to say, insults to deliver, and heads to crush. So why don't you settle in and-"

"Oh god...SHUT UP!" Brudo screamed, hardly caring for his own life anymore. Bren reared back in surprise, utterly shocked by the Avarius Lord's sudden outburst. He never had been one for such things. Although I was more the fact that he had stood up to him in the first place.

"Okay...wow." He said. "Uh, Brudo, I think it's best if you calm down and-"

"NO! None of that…" Brudo hissed. "You don't get to tell me what to do anymore. You don't get to tell me to do anything! Why should you? I've heard it all before anyway. You're completely unoriginal. Every word that comes out of your mouth is copied and pasted from something you previously said. It sounds like a loop at this point!"

While Brudo paused for a moment to catch his breath, Bren rolled his eye and glanced over at Tom, who was equally as surprised as he was. He snapped his fingers at the demon and motioned for him to stand by the front door, blocking an escape attempt. Tom nodded and slowly started inching his way along the wall, unbeknownst to Brudo.

Once he had found his voice again, Brudo spoke as soon as he could, tearing into Bren with everything he had.

"And you…" He started. "You think you're special. Some "final enemy" for Star and her little boyfriend to defeat. And even though you _want _them to fight you simply for the fun of it, you still get angry and whiny and sad every time they actually _do _something that interrupts your plans. You're just a child with too much power on their hands Bren! I've seen the exact same traits in my children, and now I'm seeing it in you!"

He then gestured to the blood-soaked room. "And _this_...ohhhh." Brudo wrung his hands together and almost grinned despite his position. "And this is nothing but a temper tantrum. You were so mad at me and Mina's followers that you couldn't _bear _the possibility of me or them taking Star and Marco away for you. So you did what any child would do: break everything and ask questions later. But that's what you do, isn't it? When you get angry, you break things and couldn't care less about the consequences. You're so immature it's a wonder that you even got this far in the first place."

Bren sighed. "Fascinating Brudo." He said, entirely without emotion. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a lot of things to do, so I'm going to-"

"No. No, I'm not done. I'm going to die, so you're going to hear this." Brudo growled. He clenched his fists and walked towards Bren, who was no longer staring at Brudo like a person looking down at an ant but more like a person looking at a cat that was meowing furiously at them.

"Another example is that stunt you pulled at the meeting." He continued, which Bren raised an eyebrow toll ll. "That's right. I heard all about it. So you stormed the meeting, killed some guards, dangled Princess Spiderbite out of a window, and then left? What was even the point of that?"

"It was to-"

"NOTHING!" Brudo screeched, making Bren stop mid-syllable. "It was for _absolutely nothing_. Just another show of your immaturity. You wanted to show off your power like a child showing off their birthday presents to a person they hate."

Tom couldn't hold it in and actually snickered behind Brudo after this, but was quickly quieted down by a glare from his master. He bit his lip as hard as he could to keep himself from laughing, although it clearly wasn't working very well.

Hearing the giggling sounds from behind him only motivated Brudo to move forward, even if they meant that his closest method of escape was a lost cause. He took a deep breath and continued.

"And you know what?" He said. "That's exactly what everyone else thinks. I spoke to the followers. I told them what happened. I told them what you did. And you know what they said? They agreed with me. That's right Been. Even someone as stupid and _them _saw you for what you really are."

"Then what am I?" Bren demanded, finally getting a full sentence in. "Because by the looks of it, you're the one repeating yourself now Brudo. Not to mention an outburst like this is hardly like you at all…...but god, I get it, you think I'm a child and that I'm immature. So why don't _you _get to the fucking point and stop wasting everyone's time?"

"The point? You want my _point_?" Brudo asked, seething at him. "My point is that you will not win this. Not the way you're going. Saying the same things, acting the same way, doing everything like it's some kind of sick game and pretending that you're five moves ahead. News flash, you're not! You may have plans on top of plans, but if they're all created by you, then they won't work."

"They've worked fine so far." Bren pointed out.

"Oh yeah? And what about your plan for me? Did that work out fine?"

Bren didn't respond to this and merely narrowed his eyes, and Brudo could tell he was staring to break him. Just a few more pushes, and he would snap and prove Brudo's point in the most perfect way.

"_You _were a mistake." He said. "Everyone...everybody…every...single...fucking…person…..." Bren growled at himself and his hands started shaking in anger, unable to bring himself to admit that he had made a genuine mistake. He was getting closer and closer to the breaking point. Brudo could see it in his eyes. Which were currently glowing brightly for some reason.

"What? Make mistakes?" Brudo asked. "Is that what you're trying to say? Because you're getting kind of hard to understand. Are you so angry that you can't even speak, or this some weird tactic to get me to be afraid of you?"

Bren started mumbling incoherently and slammed his foot down, smashing the head that was under it into blood bits. Brudo wasn't fazed in the slightest, and in fact smiled widely and started another rant.

"And that reminds me of something…" He said. "This whole thing you did. Killing everyone and spreading their insides all over like the place some kind of sick decor. It might have been effective at first, but not anymore. Because I see what it really is. Not just a temper tantrum. No, this is something else. Your pathetic little attempt at scaring me. Trying to look like some kind of tough guy that can do whatever he wants."

After this, Bren's fists noticeably tightened in anger, while behind him, Brudo almost thought he heard Tom whisper, "keep going...keep going…", seemingly directed at the Avarius Lord himself. Who in turn chuckled and did just that.

"But you know what?" He continued. "It's just stupid. This kind of stuff is a lame teenager would find badass. Which is yet _another _sign of your immaturity. You can't think of an effective manner of intimidation, so you went with the blood option. Something that you overused…"

Bren couldn't take any more of this. Brudo had finally broken through, just as planned. He stood up, his nostrils flaring and his gaze now looking like one from the devil himself. "You disrespectful, little piece of-"

"Oh yes, please, go ahead and insult me again." Brudo said. "That's it. I simply can't bear it anymore." He groaned dramatically and walked over to a piece of broken bone on the ground, the edge of it as sharp as a knife. He picked it up and held the dagger-like end against his chest. "Here." He said. "I'll do it for you."

"What are you-"

"If you can't bring yourself to end my life, then I'll do it myself." Brudo responded. "I can't handle listening to you for a second more. It never ends, and it's so damn repetitive."

"You fucking-"

"Oh Mewni, just kill me already."

"YOU-"

"Please kill me?"

"GAH!" Bren screamed, throwing his arms in the air. "THAT IS IT! I AM ONE HUNDRED AND TEN PERCENT DONE! TIME TO DIE AVARIUS!"

Brudo could hold back his laughter. This wasn't even scary anymore. It was a low, bellowing laugh, more powerful than any he had done in years. Still laughing his head off, he straightened himself and looked Bren in the eyes, and his laugh faltered slightly, but only slightly, when he saw that they were no longer orange, but a dark green.

Seeing his hated enemy react like this only enraged Bren further. Now out of control and back to his original self, he rushed forward and grabbed Brudo by the neck before slamming him against a nearby wall. But his laughter didn't cease, not even for a moment. Because he knew that even if this boy, this _creature, _took his life right here, he still would have won. Everything he said about Bren would become true. As if it wasn't already.

"STOP LAUGHING!" Bren screeched childishly. "STOP OR I'LL TORTURE YOU TO DEATH MYSELF!"

Brudo giggled like a madman and looked him dead in the face. "I really don't care." He said. "What are you going to do? More torture? More death? More blood? Every after everything I said, you still don't see that I'm right? That you're nothing?"

"Nothing?" Bren breathed. "You think I'm nothing? I am EVERYTHING! YOU ARE NOTHING! YOU AND BUTTERFLY AND DIAZ AND ALL OF THEM ARE NOTHING BUT OBSTACLES IN MY PATH AND I WILL-"

"Oh for god's SAKE." Brudo complained. "Now you're just being plain annoying! This is nearly making my ears bleed! Listening is bad enough, and I can only imagine what it must be like to have to _read _what you're saying. I pity those poor souls out there…"

"You think you're funny?" Bren asked, clenching his teeth. "That you can just _talk _your way out of this? I literally have you against the wall and can kill you at any time. In no way does this end well for you. So do yourself a favor and-"

"Nope! Not listening anymore." Brudo announced throwing his hands in the air. "Nothing you have to say is worth it anyways. So please, do _yourself _a favor and get some help. Oh, and you might want to go to a doctor. Your eyes have changed color, and I'm pretty sure that's not a good thing."

Bren's anger vanished in an instant and he suddenly got a look of fear on his face, like the switch on his back had been flipped for the second time.

"My eyes have what?"

"Cha-" Brudo coughed. "Changed color. They're green now. Don't know what that's all about."

Bren dropped Brudo the second after he said this, letting him flop to the floor. He turned away and started whispering to himself frantically, sounding like his voice was connected to a keyboard and that someone was typing away on it at 250 words per minute.

Although still greatly amused by what just occurred, Brudo couldn't help but wonder what the hell Bren was doing. He looked over at Tom, who merely shrugged in response.

"Get ahold of yourself." He thought he heard Bren whisper. "He's trying to piss you off. He _wants _you to kill him. Don't give him what he wants. Get back in control. Don't be who you were before…"

Brudo blinked in shock. While the second part of that was still a total mystery, it was really the first two things she said that had stood out. 'Holy shit.' He thought. 'Is this really happening? Could I actually make it out of this hell alive?' Although Brudo had accepted he was going to die and was currently taking it with a surprisingly indifferent attitude, the idea of staying alive another day made his old, terrified-of-Bren self return for a moment.

He looked towards Tom again, the question he was about to ask displayed but his expression alone. The demon shook his head and stepped directly in front of the doorway, before mouthing to him, "Sorry, I can't let you go, otherwise people I care about will get punished for it."

Brudo let out a silent groan but consented to this. Of course Bren had a hostage situation against Tom.

Odds were he wasn't strong enough to deal with him the old fashioned way. After all, even a fool would know that the their to the Underworld would be a much harder challenger than dozen or so bigoted morons.

'Back to Bren then.' Brudo thought, turning to the aforementioned person. Who was currently grasping the sides of his head and having what looked to be a panic attack. He wasn't paying attention to Brudo. He wasn't paying attention to anyone.

'Wait. This-this is my chance.' Brudo thought. 'He...he's completely zoned out. I can kill him right here. End this madness. Be labeled a hero. And maybe...just maybe...I'll get a pardon for all the things I did to get to this point.'

Picking up the piece of jagged bone from earlier, Brudo gripped it like a knife and moved towards Bren, preparing to stab him in the back of his neck and hopefully sever his spine. But he didn't even make it five steps before he felt a hand on his shoulder, _Tom's _hand, holding him back with a strength far greater than anything he could have possibly possessed.

"What are you doing?!" Brudo hissed at him. "Why are you stopping me? Hell, you should be _helping!_ He's right here! Distracted as can be! Hit with one of your fireballs or something and I'll finish him off!"

"I-" Tom started, before taking one last look at Bren to make sure he wasn't listening. "I can't." He whispered. "He's thought of everything. If I kill him, then my parents die anyway. He's got this weird system connected to his lackeys down in the Underworld. Even if he's gone and the main plan is stopped, my mom and dad will still die."

"Wait. He has your parents?" Brudo asked, taking ahold of his hand and pushing it off his shoulder. "That's why you've turned into his slave?"

Tom immediately regretted letting that part slip out, but then he figured that since Brudo was almost certainly going to die anyways, it was probably fine.

But he wasn't going to go any further then that.

"I...don't want to talk about it." He said. "But yes. That's his leverage against me." Tom sighed, and for a second Brudo thought he saw pity in his eyes. "I'm not going to lie, what you did back there was brave and stupid. Mostly stupid, but also kind of brave."

Brudo frowned.

"But it won't work." Tom said, taking another quick glance at his master . "All you've done is made him angry. Once he comes back from...this, he's going to make sure that you do what he says."

"What, by threatening to kill me?" Brudo asked, rolling his eyes. "That doesn't faze me anymore. Killing me will only prove my poin-"

"Yes!" Tom said, raising his voice, if only for a moment. "Yes. And he knows that. Everything you've said is correct. He's immature. He throws temper tantrums. He thinks spreading blood all over the place will make him look badass. And you know what he's going to do, now that killing you is temporarily off the table?"

"Torture me?"

Tom paused. "Uh...I mean, that might be in character for him, but no. He's going to do the same thing to you that he did to me. He's going to use leverage in the form of _other people._"

"What are you-"

"LUCITOR!" A furious voice rang out, making them both tense up on the spot.

"Oh shit." Tom breathed, before stepping back from Brudo and doing his best to pretend that nothing happened. Brudo gulped and wheeled around at a now back-to-normal Bren, his eyes glowing orange like an electronic Halloween prop and wearing a scowl that seemed to spread across his entire face like some kind of infection.

"What...are you doing?" He asked, his tone a mix of curiosity combined with a small bit of are-you-out-of-your-goddamn-mind.

"..."

"Oh no, you can speak." Bren said, giving Tom permission to talk for maybe the first time in weeks. "I want to hear this."

Tom gulped. "I was just...uh…" He then clamped his mouth shut as soon as he had opened it, knowing that the odds of one of his parents getting out of this one was slim to none. He knew he had to say something. But he was so scared for his parents that the words just weren't leaving his mouth.

"Spit it out." Bren growled. He pulled out his device from his pocket and his finger hovered over the button. "Tell me or I'll tell my friends to draw and quarter your dad."

"..."

Bren sighed in exasperation. "Okay. Fine. Keep silent. You win!" He exclaimed. "You...chose this. I warned you, but I guess it just wasn't enough. Have fun living with yourself, demon."

"NO!" Tom said. "DON'T-"

Too late. He pressed the button, and the device started to emit a loud ringing sound similar to a ringing phone. Tom somehow went pale white and his voice died in his throat as the line kept ringing and echoed throughout the entire house.

"You know, I did have the thought just press that button to give the signal to kill both of them." Bren said to Tom, who looked like he was about to throw up. "But if fires that I wouldn't have anything left to hang over you after that, so I figured it was a bad choice. So as a treat, only _one _of them will die. And you will keep doing whatever I say, or the next time I press this button, it won't just ensure the death of your parents, but the entire Underworld as well. I'll make sure the entire dimension gets murdered that day."

Tom didn't even respond to this, still standing in place and remaining frozen in fear or shock. He had done everything Bren said, followers ever command, all to make sure that his parents remained safe and unharmed. And now that the day had finally come, when he had failed after all this time because he just couldn't _keep his mouth shut,_ the shock that all the monstrous things he did was for nothing turned him into a statue of regret and grief.

Bren, however, giggled like a four year old when he realized this hilarious (to him) fact, and a second later, a loud, "Yes sir?" was heard coming from his device-phone, sounding like a tiger that had the vocal cords of a parrot.

"The prisoners." Bren said, while looking directly at Tom, who was shaking in his boots. "How are they?"

"They are still alive and being fed and watered, as per your instructions." The person on the other end said. "Wait, is it finally time sir?" They asked. "Time to show the prince the consequences of his errors?"

"Yes". Bren said enthusiastically. "First, I want you to kill-"

"WAIT!" Brudo blurted out, making Bren pause mid-sentence. "Don't." He pleaded. "Just...hold on, will you?"

Bren glanced at the device he was holding and then back at Brudo, as if contemplating whether to hear him out or not. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he gave another order into the device.

"Hold that thought." He said, and Tom couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief, although he was still as white as a sheet. "What is it Avarius? I'm kind of in the middle of something."

Brudo took a deep breath. There was no going back now. He still wasn't scared for himself anymore, but rather for someone else, maybe the first time this had happened since he was born. "Don't...kill his parents." He said. "Just listen for a second."

"Listen? Listen?!" Bren exclaimed. "Tell me, why should I listen? Hell, why am I even allowing you to talk right now?! This isn't your business. Tom disobeyed me, so I'm killing one of his parents. Stay out of it."

"No." Brudo said. "You're not going to do this."

"Why do you care?" Bren asked. "Since when have you genuinely cared about _anyone _that wasn't you? You don't like your family. You don't like your children. I don't even think you like your wife! You only stay here because you got a lot of room and that presents a lot of opportunities to be by yourself! Don't start acting like a selfless person for no reason, because it's not going to work. Especially when I know who you really are…"

Brudo winced as the Bren's words faded. He was right of course. This wasn't like him. To try and save someone else. He had only ever cared for his stickers and his own well-being. So why now? Why did he care for Tom's parents now? Right before he was about to die, something he had literally laughed at just a few minutes ago.

'Why?' He asked himself. 'What changed? What made me order him to stop? Have I really turned into a selfless person? Just like that?'

'You didn't turn selfless.' His conscience said, returning and sounding nothing like him. 'You're still the same cruel, apathetic, horrible person that you were an hour ago. Nothing has changed.'

'Then what-'

'Because you saw a potential method of escape.' It said to him. 'You believe that if you could confuse Bren and Tom long enough, you might be able to flee and survive to lie another day. That's all it is. That's all it was.'

'That rant I did earlier?' He suggested.

'Yes, that was part of it.'

'Me laughing and not being afraid to die?'

'Again, yes. And you were afraid to die. You just didn't show it at that moment. Or were not entirely aware of it.'

'So you're saying…' Brudo thought. 'That it was all faked? That none of what I did made me different at all? I'm still the exact same person?'

'Haven't changed a bit.'

'How are you so sure?' He asked, doubting the voice in his head that he was pretty sure wasn't even there.

'Because...I am you?' His conscience said, sounding confused. 'You are literally talking to yourself here. Technically, I don't exist.'

'So...then that means...I'm still the same person I always was.' Brudo realized, putting on a face of defeat. 'Well then, only one thing to do.'

'Yes.' His conscience said. 'In the last few minutes of your life, you must try your hardest to become the best person you can be and-'

'What? No.' Brudo interrupted. 'If I'm going to always be this person, always a selfish person even when it seems like I'm caring towards others, then I'm going to embrace it. If I survive this, I'm going to spend the rest of my life caring and helping other people, but only if it's for my benefit in the end.'

'...While I agree with the first part of that plan, the end goal has a lot to be desired.' His conscience said, sounding rather unnerved by the whole thing. 'How about instead you-'

'Don't need it.' Brudo thought. 'Besides, what more could I learn from you that I don't already know? You said it yourself.' A small grin formed on the edges of Brudo's mouth. 'You're not even _real._'

'...Touché.'

Brudo came back to the real world as he swiftly banished his conscience to the darkest corner of his mind. It was time to put a stop to this. He had no clue by this point whether he could die or not, but it was like he said earlier.

He really didn't care anymore.

"You want to know why I care about them?" He said to Bren. "Because maybe for once, I want to do the right thing. Maybe for once, I don't want to be a selfish piece of garbage that hates everyone he sees and wants to be alone with his stickers. Maybe for once, I-"

"Oh god, shut up." Bren said. "This is so out of character for you it's starting to make me gag. But fine." He threw his hands up in the air. "Try and be a hero Brudo. See how well it works out for you. Come and try to take the remote from me. You'll fail, but hey, that's what doing something gets you."

Brudo paused but didn't back down. He couldn't. Not yet. Not after all he had done.

"I'm not going to try and take it from you." He said. "I wouldn't be able to anyways. But I'm still going to try and reason with you."

"Do you realize how stupid you just sounded?" Bren asked him. "_Reason _with me? Seriously? If trying to reason with me worked, then I would have stopped doing all this a long time ago. Trust me, nothing you say can talk me out of finishing my end goal." He let the device fall to his side and gazed at Brudo with a fretted expression. "And once again, I know what you're thinking. That after all you said to me, all the insulting and cursing and whatnot, that you just _have _to keep going or else it'll all be for nothing. Well, that's what I'm thinking as well. I'm doing this for a reason that you couldn't even comprehend. For a reason that nobody in this entire worthless dimension would ever be capable of understanding. So I'm not backing down. Ever."

Nobody spoke after this. Not Brudo, not Bren, and not Tom. A faint dripping sound was all that was audible. They briefly seemed to observe each another, almost like equals, even if no one in existence (especially themselves) would consider them as such. Finally, Bren opened his mouth and spoke in a deadpan tone, sounding like he was tired of the whole situation.

"But…" He continued. "I see that you're not going to give up. You're not going to let Tom's parents die.'I don't know why, but you're not. And I can respect that, even if it's coming from you." He stared Brudo in the eyes, a glint buried deep within them. "But someone is going to be punished for this. So I have another idea. An idea where you can make the final call."

He glanced over at Tom. "Lucitor. Do what I told you to do earlier, and grab the smallest one you see."

Tom froze in place for a second but soon obeyed, knowing what was coming next was the only chance of both his parents surviving the day. He stepped further away from Brudo, raised his arms, and disappeared in a flash of fire.

"Where-where did you send him?" Brudo asked.

"Oh, someplace special." Bren said. He took a few steps towards Brudo, who refused to back away and stood his ground. Although it was plain to see that he was having a hard time doing that. "Brudo, what did I say earlier, when you asked me if all of _this-" _He raised his foot and crushed a stray eyeball that was lying on the ground. "-Was the remains of your family?"

"You...you said that it wasn't." Brudo replied, starting to get a bad feeling about what was coming next. "That they weren't here."

"That's right." Bren said. "And they're not here because I told them to go to that taco stand in the middle of town and wait there while I deal with their _dear old dad_. Of course, as you've probably guessed, I never planned for them to stay there forever. I made sure to put them somewhere easy to find, accessible, and inconspicuous. For Lucitors sake. Speaking of which…"

The tower of flame returned, having taken no more than a minute, and Brudo's eyes widened at the sight of Tom carrying little Zudo under his arms, who was busy trying to escape from the demons grip. He stopped when he realized where he was, only to scream at the top of his lungs upon seeing the gore and viscera covered room. He then spotted his father and began yelling at him frantically.

"Dad! What's going on? What did you do?! I thought you said that if we did that thing for you we would be safe! What's-"

"Quiet!" Bren yelled, no longer finding it funny. He approached the boy and eyed him up and down, as if he was a walking computer attempting to analyse something. "Zudo, eh? Hm. Not a bad choice. Lucitor, set him down."

Tom literally threw his arms apart and let Zudo drop to the floor like a rock, although he got to his feet a second later and desperately tried to wipe all the blood off his newly-stained clothes, babbling all the while. Bren motioned for Tom to grab Brudo, and did so before the Avarius lord could even react, snatching up both of his wrists and holding them behind his back. He then forced him to his knees while Bren strode over to Zudo, who froze in response.

"Hi." Bren said, standing over the terrified child.

"Um...hello." Zudo said shakily, remembering full well who Bren was, as well as the violent threats he made towards them if they didn't leave the house and go to that taco stand.

"You see your dad over there?" Bren asked, pointing toward Brudo.

"Y-yeah." Zudo replied. "What are you-"

"I just want you to know that what I'm about to do next is in _no way _your fault Zudo." Bren said reassuringly. "It's his. Recently your father has pissed me off with his antics, and since he apparently isn't afraid to die anymore for some stupid reason, I have to find another way to get him to do what I want."

Nobody moved for a split second.

"So yeah. Sorry about this." Bren said. And before Brudo or Zudo could even react, Bren reached forward and grabbed the child by the head before lifting him up into the air. Zudo screamed in terror and tried to get away from Bren, but his arms were too short to reach him.

"No! Let him go!" Brudo yelled. "Don't you dar-"

"Uh uh uh uh uh." Bren said, making the Avarius stop short. "Okay. Here's what's going to happen. Since you didn't want Tom's family to die, yours is going to have to take its place. Starting with this one." His finger tightened around Zudos skull, producing a faint cracking sound as the bone began to snap under the pressure.

"NO!" Brudo yelled. "Don't-"

"Then what did you want?!" Bren yelled at him. "I hate you, you know. I hate you for making me do this. I have standards. You want me to kill a few dozen racist, moronic adults? Fine. You want me to kill two teenagers that caused the destruction of the last of the parallel dimensions? Fine. But if you wanted me to kill an innocent child like this, with my bare hands, _for no good reason _other than the fact that you're stubborn, then I might have actually refused!"

"This is not what I wanted!" Brudo yelled. "I just didn't want Tom's parents to die!"

"And look where it got you." Bren hissed. "And I know. It must be surprising to hear me say something like that. To know that there are situations where I don't enjoy killing people and might even balk at the prospect. But everything I do is for a reason. And like I said, _this…"_ He shook Zudo up and down like a dog with a chew toy. "...this is for no reason."

"Then put him down." Brudo pleaded. "Don't hurt him."

"Why should I?" Bren asked. "Because you asked me to? First you tell me not to kill Tom's parents, and now this? How many more people am I going to have to go through? How many more lives should I spare? Who lives, and who dies? Can you handle being the arbiter of that decision?!"

Brudo didn't respond. He couldn't think of any good response. He looked at Zudo's face, stricken with horror and pain with tears flowing down his cheeks like a waterfall. A face that knew death might be coming, and held a life that was in someone else's hands.

Brudo shook in place as Bren glowered at him, looking like he might explode with rage at any second. _Again_. And despite the fact that it wasn't even his own life at stake this time, he was more scared of what might happen now.

"Now." Bren growled. "You can do one of two things Brudo. One. You say that I can kill Tom's parents. I don't really need your permission, but since you were practically on your knees begging for them not to die, I want to hear you do the exact opposite to save Zudo's life, which brings us to option two. I kill Zudo, and both of Tom's parents will live. But no matter what, someone is going to die, and you get the honor of choosing. What matters more to you? A family you know nothing about, or the family you created but never really cared for?"

"I...I don't-"

"I'll give you ten seconds, how about that?." Bren suggested, although it wasn't really meant to be one. "And then I'm deciding for you and killing Zudo. So, without any further ado...TEN!"

"Hold on!" Brudo said, his heart rate increasing so fast that one would think he had just run a marathon. "I need you to-"

"NINE!"

"Let me go!" Zudo yelled futilely, still trying to get away from the hand that was clenched around his skull. His movements had become much more frantic and panicked, as he had a feeling his father wouldn't be able to decide before Bren hit zero. He had to break free _now _or he would die.

"EIGHT!"

Tom, meanwhile, stood in silence, wondering whether or not he should do anything. Just like Zudo, he was pretty sure that Bren would reach serious before the Avarius lord would make a decision, and therefore the boy in Bren's hand would die. But, if this happened, then both his parents would live. He was still recovering from the jolt of fear he was hit with earlier, when Bren pressed _that_ button and started barking orders into his little device. So he was as eager as possible to keep them alive. Unfortunately, the conflicting feelings between saving them and trying to save Zudo were growing stronger, and started to become too much.

"SEVEN!"

But he knew what he had to do. What was necessary for keeping them demons clenched both his fists tightened as well as his teeth as he silently made his choice. If he spoke up, then Bren would kill one of his parents anyways. Nothing he could do to save Zudo would result in them staying alive. So he knew he had to keep his mouth shut, like he _should _have done earlier. And if Brudo actually made a choice and told Bren to kill either his mom or dad…...then he would make sure to tear Brudo a new one whether his "master" liked it or not.

"SIX!"

'Nonononononono!' Brudo thought, having trouble coming up with anything to say. 'What do I do?! I mean, obviously, I should save Zudo. He's just a child, _my child, _and has no part to play in this. Him-no, all of them are only involved in this mess because of me. I can't let him die.' Brudo then almost gagged on the spot, disgusted by how unselfish his thoughts were becoming. 'Gee, so much for only doing things for myself. But…'

"FIVE!"

'...If I say that one of the Lucitor monarchs should die, then I might be killed anyways.' He continued. 'I know that Bren has that demon on a leash like a trained dog. And that he might be grateful for me stopping the earlier execution. But if I change my mind now…'

"FOUR!"

'Then he might burn me out of anger! After all, it would be partially my fault. And since he wouldn't dare attack Bren because of the risk that his other parent would die, I would be the only choice. Although, at that point I think he'd be so overcome and blinded with rage and grief that he might go straight for Bren no matter what. Upon which I could grab Zudo and finally get out of here!'

"THREE!"

'Yes, that is the only option. That is what I will do, because Tom _will _attack Bren. I'm sure of it.' Brudo thought, nodding along with himself. 'Even a person as heartless as me was downtrodden when my parents died, so that demon would practically explode, and then I'll make my escape. Even though, technically, I was the one who killed them.' He then turned and looked at nothing, as if an invisible person was there watching him. 'Don't judge me! Most people would do anything to inherit that kind of fortune and you know you would too!'

"TWO!"

'Is this really happening?' Bren thought, a small part of his soul telling himself to stop the countdown and end this madness. 'Am I really going to kill this kid just like that?' I've killed so many times before now. Hell, this entire room is literally splattered with body parts from people that I slaughtered only a half-hour or so ago with my bare hands! But for some reason, this still doesn't feel right.'

"O-one."

'But why?' He contemplated, wondering what the reason was for him thinking about these things. Things that were so out of character for him. 'I don't care about this boy. I shouldn't care. He's nothing but a tool I'm using to get ahead. And compared to what I have planned for this entire damn town, crushing his head is pretty dull!' His concerned frown turned into a snarl as his grip stiffened and Zudo whined in pain, still trying to escape. 'I can't give up now! This isn't what _they _would want. They wouldn't want you to give up! So you can't! You are the last of your kind! There's no room for weakness! And now…it's already too late.'

"ZERO!" He shrieked, knocking Tom and Brudo out of their thoughts. Zudo's face became transfixed with terror as he felt Bren move his hand muscles and prepare to deal the killing blow. But before he could end his existence, a final cry of hope for the boy's life was heard.

"WAIT!" Brudo yelled for perhaps the fifth time. "I've made my decision!"

Time seemed to stop as he said this, and Bren slowly turned his head away from Zudo and looked at the person who he hadn't truly expected to respond. But being Bren, he knew that this might lead to another opportunity. One that he had been thinking of ever since Tom had come back with Brudo…

"Oh?" He said, his voice sounding like thunder compared to the death silence coming from the rest of the house. "Alright then. Which is it Brudo? Who am I killing? Your son or one of Tom's parents?"

Brudo inhaled sharply and then responded. "O-one of Tom's parents. That's who you should kill. Just let Zudo go."

Silence.

And then the Avarius Lord felt a hand grab him by the back of his hair and he shrieked in pain. He didn't even have to ask who it was. He started panicking and tried to escape, but it was no use. Tom's grip was like it on and fueled by rage. This was not how it was supposed to go. This was not how it was supposed to go _at all. _But the demon, feeling utterly betrayed that Brudo had chosen to let his family die right after he had tried to save them, felt nothing but a desire to kill the old royal.

He then felt the remain hand yank him backward and flip him head over heels, and he landed flat in his face, the now partially-blood staining his clothes and rippling around him in waves. The back of Tom's shoe landed flat on his back and crushed him against the floor, and soon he was pressing his foot down so hard that it felt like it would go straight through this chest. And just when it felt like it actually _would, _a loud voice interrupted them all.

"Wait!" Bren yelled, momentarily snapping Tom out of his hate-filled outburst. The demon turned his head three hundred sixty degrees and glared at Bren, who had set a trembling Zudo down on the floor a moment earlier and was now approaching the pair, shaking the device in his hands as if to remind him that he was still in control here.

"Don't kill him. I need him alive. For now." He said. "Lucitor, let him go."

"..."

"LET HIM GO!"

The demon scoffed but relented and took his boot off of Brudo's back, making him groan in agony. He walked past Bren and headed back to the corner where he once was, breathing heavily and growling like a rabid dog.

"Stay there until I have a use for you." Bren ordered, before kneeling down over the pained old royal and sighing.

"What a shame." He said. "If you hadn't said anything, this might have actually played out in your favor. But I suppose that the "new" selfless you or whatever couldn't help itself."

"Can...you blame me?" Brudo choked out, spitting some blood into the floor where it mixed with the rest. "Even if I'm pretending to be selfless-"

"Pretending?"

"Doesn't matter." Brudo said, hoping to play it off. "But even if I am, I have my limits. And even if I saved Tom's parents from dying earlier, that doesn't mean i'd do it again if-"

"That's not it." Bren interjected.

"What?"

"That's not it." He repeated. "That's not what you were thinking when you told me to kill one of the Lucitors. You were _planning _something, weren't you?"

The look that crossed Brudo's face after this told Bren that he was correct. He grinned in response, but it soon faded back into a frown.

"I don't blame you." He said. "Also, I don't even care what it is. I assume it had something to do with Tom? Like maybe you were hoping he would attack me after I gave the order to kill his parents and not right after you said that that was okay with you."

"..."

"Wait, seriously? That was really your plan?" Bren asked, visibly surprised that Brudo had come up with that all on his own. "I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or impressed…"

"Can we just skip to the end of this?" Brudo groaned, feeling older by the second. "Are you going to kill Tom's parents or did my decision not even matter?"

"I don't think I am, if only because I was still salty over you insulting me all those times earlier and it gave me great amusement to see him beat you into the ground like that." Bren said. "Hear that Tom? It's your lucky day! You going berserk actually saved your folks lives."

If Tom made any sort of response to this, Brudo didn't see or hear it. Instead, his gaze shifted toward Zudo, who was leaning up against a wall and standing on his toes, trying to get as far away from all the blood as possible. Bren caught his eye and sighed.

"Let me guess. You think I'm going to kill Zudo now that I'm no longer killing Tom's parents. Fortunately for him, not the case. If I _really _wanted to end his life back there, he'd be dead. But now...since those two options are off the table…"

Brudo knew where this was going. This was finally it. Maybe. Possibly? He would have to wait and see how things played out. By this point, attempting to predict what might come next would likely result in the exact opposite happening.

"I have decided that I'm not going to kill anyone here but you Brudo." Bren said, to no one's surprise. "Something I suppose I should have just done from the beginning. But no matter how many chances you gave me, I foolishly refused time and time again." Bren's eyes then turned once again shifted color, with one eye staying the usual burning orange while the other turned into a lush green, making it look like he had heterochromia. "And thus, you made me do and say a few things that I'd rather not repeat."

"I didn't want to scream or go psycho on you like that earlier. I didn't want to threaten your child's life right in front of you. Surprising as it may seem, even I have standards. And as I held Zudo's head in my hands while he pleaded for his life…" He paused and his organs pupil was split in half, now replaced by a half-green, half-orange one. As small of a detail it was, it was a fascinating thing to witness, even if nobody that saw it could make heads or tails of what it meant. "...A small part of myself told me to stop. It told me that what I was doing wasn't right. That if I did this, there was truly no going back. And guess what Brudo?"

Bren took a deep breath and stride towards the Avarius patriarch, although there was no malice in his gaunt, no hostility, nothing at all about his posture that informed Brudo that he was about to be attacked.

Once he got within arms reach, he stopped and the two stared each down. They both looked deep into the eyes of the person opposite to them, as if they were studying a painting. Brudo's were still yellow and filled with a general hatred for the world around him, while the two colors that made up Bren's split eye were starting to merge together, forming a murky brown. Bren himself seemed to be unaware of this for the time being, while Brudo was still lost as to what it could mean. Not that it mattered to him. He ha-

"I almost did." Bren finally said, derailing Brudo's thought train. "I almost stopped, if only for a second. For one small, infinitely short second…" He put his index finger up in the air to enunciate his point. "I really considered putting him down and letting all this go. I don't know why. Mercy isn't something I like to show, as I'm sure you've guessed by now. Maybe only to the most loyal people for the smallest of mistakes. Or those who I know won't betray me for fear of what might happen, so their punishment instead goes to the people that they care for…"

He glanced over at Tom, who shifted nervously under his multi-colored gaze.

"But...I didn't." He sighed, looking back at the person he had given a death sentence to before turning his back to him. "I refused to stop. Because I knew that if I stopped now, it would all be for nothing." He swiveled around and outspread his arms, gesturing toward the entire blood-soaked foyer. "My plans...the people I've killed…and the dimension I lost...it would all be for naught. I couldn't have that. There...was no room for weakness. Not in me. Not in _him." _He pointed at Tom. "Not in anyone. These people. Mina's posse. They were weak. Naive. They didn't see what was right in front of them until it was far too late. It's the same thing that everyone should see."

He cleared his throat like a person about to deliver an important announcement.

"That no matter what you do, that no matter how hard you hope, or try, or pray, there will always be a point in your life where you will be completely and utterly outclassed. A point where you can't do anything to stop what's coming next. And...in my personal opinion...the only thing you can do at that point is to give up and let it run its course."

He walked back over to Brudo's chair, shuddered, and grabbed another head from behind it, holding it up and displaying it to all present like a MVP holding up a trophy.

"They didn't understand that." He said. "They thought they could keep fighting and everything would turn out okay. Even when I tore them to pieces like so many others, the few that weren't frozen in terror still tried to fight back, instead of attempting to flee like they should have." He sighed. "Even if it was futile to try such a thing. But now, their ignorant, pitiful, and despicable souls join the rest in Limbo. Or Hell. They probably went to Hell."

"What are you trying to say?" Brudo asked, not sure if he was getting the full picture.

"Who knows…" Bren replies, dropping the head he was holding and letting it fall to the floor. "Maybe I'm rambling on like I always do. Because you know, you were right earlier. All those things you said about me...it was the truth. Because just like they couldn't see that they had lost after I burned Mina alive…"

He turned once again and gestured towards the demon in the room who had been listening to his monologue with apt attention ever since Bren's eyes shifted in ways that no normal eyes should.

"...and just like he knows he's outclassed by me when I have this device…" Bren continued, before taking a seat in the armchair and resting his hand on his forehead.

"...there's something that I couldn't beat. Something that even I couldn't possibly hope to stop. And that thing...is myself."

Everybody in the room tilted their head at this, even Tom, as this little piece of information was news to him as it was to Zudo and his father. They all waited for Bren to speak again unsure if what to make of this.

"Because Brudo, as I'm sure you saw, when my emotions get out of control, my eyes react accordingly. If I get made, they glow. If I get depressed or sad or something along those lines...that glow fades. And if I lose control, if the person I _used _to be manages to fight their way to the surface, it changes to how they originally were. Green."

Bren's head then dropped, obscuring his face from view.

"That person is the only one that has eluded me. The only one that I have never been able to destroy. No matter how hard I try, I can't get to them. But they can certainly get to me. It's like a loathsome parasite, latching onto my soul and feeding off my emotions. They whisper, they scream, and they beg. Sometimes for days at a time. Pleading for me to stop thinking about revenge and just...forget about it."

Bren then rotated his gaze skyward (or ceilingward in this case), and for a moment, Brudo thought he could see a single glistening tear coming from his split eye, something that he had never seen Bren do and something he never thought he'd do.

"But I won't forget. It's already too late for that nonsense." He said, his hands gripping the sides of the chair. "Like I said earlier, stopping would mean making all of it pointless. And so...I have to keep moving forward. Day after day...hour after hour...year after year..and maybe when Star is finally dead, and when this dimension is a pile of ash, I'll let the other guy come out, and he can see what I have wrought."

"And he can see...just how beautiful it all is."

After he said this, the tear that was in the edge of his eye slowly slid down his cheek and fell onto the ground below, making a noise so soft and gentle that nobody should have been able to hear it, but they all did anyways. All four of them, deafened by the sound.

And then the silence that came afterward was just as beautiful as Bren's vision of a world consumed by fire.

Unfortunately however, the moment did not last.

"So what?" Brudo asked, crossing his arms. "Am I supposed to feel sorry for you now because of this? Is that it?"

"No. No, I don't need you to feel sorry for me." Bren said. "I can do that myself if the need arises."

"Then what was the point of telling me all that? What was the point of telling _any _of us?"

"Maybe I felt that somebody just needed to know." Bren said with uncertainty. "Or maybe I felt that _you _deserved to know for whatever reason. Considering you'll be dead soon."

"Dead?" Brudo said, before huffing. "Is it for real this time? Because at this point, I still have no idea whether you still want to kill me or not. It's been back and forth ever since I arrived."

"The plan was to kill you from the start." Bren said. "And then you made me reconsider after your little rant, because if I did it out of anger I would be doing nothing but proving your point. But now...I don't really care if your point is proven. I'm not doing it out of anger anymore. I'm doing it because I want this thing to end already. It's gone on for too long, and now, I'm bringing it to a close. With this, the day will end. This day...a day that nobody will forget."

Brudo nodded and silently accepted his fate. It was like Bren said. This was going to happen from the start. With the way things had gone, it was always inevitable. He summoned up all the willpower he had to switch his mood back to the person from earlier, a person didn't care if Bren killed him or not. It only felt right to die as someone he wasn't, after everything.

And so he gave up for one last time.

And in that moment, the lord Brudo that once was ceased to exist. And in its place, a Marco-esque shell of a man, broken and apathetic as anyone ever was.

"Then do it already." He told Bren. "Just get it over with already so we can end this dismal affair."

"All in due time." Bren said. "But I'm not going to kill you like that. You're going out with a bang. Lucitor, go get it and start setting it up. We're done here."

Tom stopped learning against the wall at this order and briefly walked into the shadows, before dragging out a large crate made of metal. He grabbed the top off of it and threw it to the floor with a loud CLANG, before taking out a large barrel, a line of wire, and a few other things that Brudo's didn't recognize.

Bren then looked at Zudo, who didn't know what to make of the whole situation anymore.

"Go. Get out of here." He told him. "You're not needed anymore. But if you tell anybody about what you heard here, then next time I will kill you."

Zudo paused before taking the opportunity and sprinted for the door. Brudo didn't even glance at him as he opened it, ran out, and slammed it behind him, no doubt going back to the safety of his siblings.

Bren sighed. "Honestly, I'm glad I didn't have to kill him. He seems like a good kid. And before you make a note on all the stuff from earlier when I said "no room for weakness", don't worry. He'll probably perish in the end anyways…"

"What is this?" Brudo asked, ignoring Bren's comments on his son and focusing all his attention on what Tom was setting up. "Is this what you meant when you said "go out with a bang?""

"It is." Bren said. "You see that barrel? It's filled with the same material that I killed Mina with. Extremely flammable, and explosive if contained in large amounts. The wire is a simple tripwire connected to something that'll ignite a spark…and I'm sure you can guess what comes after that."

"I see." Brudo said. "How big of an explosion will it make?"

"Wow, you don't really care, do you?" Bren noticed. "I can't say I blame you. If I was in this your position,

with no hope of escape in the face of an inescapable death, I would give up too. I suspect that most people wouldn't, but I guess people like us, the ones who don't care, we're not like that. Almost makes me have a bit of respect for you."

"How. Big. Is. The. Explosion." Brudo repeated, pausing between each word.

"Big enough that everything within a block of this mansion will be demolished." Bren said. "I spent a longtime on making that substance as powerful as possible. With this, the town will once again be thrown into disarray. I imagine the death toll alone will cause riots for something to be done. And the best part is that it's coming right after that speech Butterfly made this morning. Everything she said and convinced them to do will be reversed when they're terrified that I can strike at any time."

"Very impressive." Brudo said, not caring as he knew that the taco stand that contained his family was not within a block of the mansion. Hopefully Zudo could get clear in time. But besides these little internal emotions, Brudo didn't show any emotion, something that Bren took notice of, and almost seems to admire.

"Hm. You know, as out of character as it is for you, I'm glad to see that you no longer care." He said. "It'll make everything for you a lot easier. Now, you can stand wherever you want. When the police arrive after Rafael tells them everything, they'll rush to arrest you, trip on the wire, and boom. Your story ends, as well as theirs."

Brudo didn't even bother asking how Rafael had escaped, nor how he knew about him being the ringleader, or even how Bren knew about any of that in the first place. Not just because of his newfound (sorta) and possibly permanent apathetic attitude, but also because at this point it was less confusing to simply listen than to ask and become even more confused.

"But...I'd recommend sitting in your armchairs. I'll place that wire in front of it for you. All the blood should have been dried by now, so you don't have to worry about that."

If Brudo was concerned about this in the slightest, he didn't show it, and instead casually walked past Bren and sat down. It was extremely uncomfortable, and smelled like it was made of rusty copper.

But it was still familiar.

"Great." Bren said, seeing that Brudo had resigned it his fate and settled in. Soon after he said this he began to hear sirens in the distance. It was time. "Lucitor. Are you finished? Say yes or no."

"Yes." Tom said, having completed his task only a second ago. Like Brudo and Bren, he too had been hit with a wave of apathy, the unfortunate aftereffect of all the fear he crumbled beneath after the close call with his parents. Any interest he had for the safety of the Avarius Lord faded when he made the choice over which life Bren should take, and just like his master's eye (which was still a dark merged brown), those two things had fused together and created a feeling that was the metaphysical manifestation of "I don't give a damn."

The day had taken its toll on all of them.

"Good, good." Bren said. "Prepare to teleport us the hell out of here. I still have a few closing words I'd like to have with our Avarius friend."

Bren took a short stroll over to his Avarius "friend", and looked over him. Brudo's response was to stare him in the eyes again, which hadn't changed color since the last time. He began to wonder if he should tell him about his split eye, but figured that if Bren hadn't noticed by this point, then there was no point in doing so.

"Looks like this is goodbye Brudo." Bren declared. "I'll make this quick, as I'm sure that as you've heard, the police are already on their way. I'm kind of surprised that they didn't arrive sooner, but hey, more quality time between us."

He loudly cleared his throat and sighed. "Brudo. You were a real pain in the ass. But the partnership between us, however brief it was, I enjoyed. I had hoped that you would live to see the end result of my plan, but sadly, I suppose you couldn't let that happen. It's a shame too. I would have let you and your family go live freely and peacefully in some other dimension. I thought I would be happy to tear you to shreds, especially earlier when you insulted me like that."

He put his hand on his shoulder. "But seeing you the way you are now...having given up on everything and any hope of escape, I don't think I hate you anymore. You're an odd one. I thought I knew you. The kind of person you were. But after all that I've seen in the last half-hour, I guess I didn't really know you at all. You could be twenty different types of people if you wanted to. A fearless person. A selfless person. A person indifferent to everything around them. So many roles you played, all in an attempt to escape, or trick, or any number of things."

Bren then leaned back and started to walk over to Tom. "What I'm trying to say is that it sucks that you have to die Brudo. But some things are unavoidable. You were an unbelievable asshole your whole life, and you waited until it was a bit too late to try and reform. Oh, and as for your family, don't worry. I won't hurt any of them. Not even if Zudo tells the police and Eclipsa what he heard here. About me. About me having Tom's parents. About any of it. Sure, it'll make things harder down the line, but I enjoy a good challenge."

He took one last step toward Tom and looked back at the chair, who's occupant had hardly moved during his speech.

"Goodbye Avarius." He said. "I'll make sure to take full responsibility for everything. Consider it a last gift. Making sure that whatever reputation you have is upheld."

And with that, Tom raised his arms, and they were gone in a puff of smoke.

And Brudo? He looked down at the wire, and contemplated over why Bren had given him the chance to escape. The door was right there. He could easily get out now.

But he didn't.

Instead he sat, and he waited.

Waited for the ones who would release him from this predestined existence.

* * *

A dozen or so police cars swerved and screeched as they shot down the road like a group of rabbits, all moving in one giant unit. Accompanying this miniature car brigade were several warnicorns with fully armored knights riding on top of them, specifically the same knights who had been, as Eclipsa put it, "blind drunk" during the demon attack but had helped out nonetheless. Two of them were missing however. Higgs and Sir Stabby were not among their ranks, as they were currently down at the monster section of town, restoring order after a small riot was incited because of a claim that stated that a "super secret monster freedom fighter group" was actually now under the control of Bren.

And at the current moment, the two knights couldn't possibly know how lucky they were to be there, instead of assisting in the raid on Avarius mansion.

And, someone, despite riding warnicorns, they were able to keep up just fine with the police, despite said police going at over twice the speed limit. It was like a race to see who could get to the mansion first, and by the way things looked, that race would likely end in a tight draw.

But none of them were thinking of this as a race. They all knew what they had to do; what the target was right now. And as much as they didn't want to believe it, Lord Brudo Avarius, giver of free money, was now an enemy of Earthni. And he had to be stopped. By them. Their orders were to capture him, but also to use lethal force against the followers of Mina if absolutely necessary. Because they were the kind of people who would _never _listen to what the other side had to say. There was simply no negotiating with them.

Although the first order they had was "attempt a negotiation. Loudly."

There. A minute or so later, the mansion came into their sights. Tall and imposing, the gigantic stones that made it up seemed to sparkle in the sunlight, almost like it had glitter sticking to it. They all came to a halt directly in front of the gate, with the police jumping out of their cars and the knights dismounting their warnicorns in unison.

The leading officer, a sergeant, got a loudspeaker and spoke through it, their voice audible halfway across town.

"THIS IS THE POLICE!" He shouted. "WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP AND WE CAN HANDLE THIS PEACEFULLY!"

No response. They waited for approximately sixty seconds, but no one came out, leading to an rather awkward silence.

"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" He repeated. "WE WILL NOT ASK AGAIN! THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!"

When another minute passed by with still no response from the people (person) inside, the sergeant decided that enough was enough. The mayor had ordered them to take care of this as fast as possible, so that's exactly what they were going to do. He tossed the microphone aside and turned around, motioning to the three swat teams and multiple knights behind him, who he had been given tactical command of.

"Here's the plan." He announced, pointing to two of the swat team. "You two go around each side of the mansion and cover any escape routes. If someone tries to get out, restrain them first, ask questions later." He then focused his attention on the remaining team and the knights. "All of you are with me. We're going straight in through the front. Based on the info the mayor gave us, we can assume that everyone inside will be immediately hostile toward us, so as soon as we step in those doors, shoot or slash to disable, not kill. Got it?"

There was murmur of "yes sirs" and "understood."

"Good. Now get ready. I know none of you want to do this. We all know the good Brudo did for the town by giving us all that money. But we have no choice. This is it. We take them out here. Now move out!"

After this order, the entire group rushed forward, with the knights flanking the police on both sides like a shield. Although hardly any shield like this was necessary. Every single human and Mewman that made up the group was covered from head to toe in thin but insanely strong body armor that even a blast from a shotgun couldn't break through. A beautiful combination of Earth and Mewni armor.

Not that the "beautiful combination" would help them that much.

They reached the door and took positions. Every other officer in the area got ready in case the convicts inside attempted to flee, which they all assumed they would.

"One…" The sergeant said, beginning a countdown once he had made a quick confirmation on his walkie talkie that the other two teams were in positions.

"Two…"

They all tensed up and got ready to rush in.

"Three!"

He kicked in the door, and they all moved forward as one coherent unit.

"Police!" He yelled. "Get down on the-OH MY GOD!"

This rather appropriate reaction came from the sergeant going in first and seeing what Bren had made of the foyer. The same horrible sight that Brudo and Zudo had seen. A blood soaked, gory mess that used to be living, breathing people. Although most of it was dry by now, it was plainly obvious what was coating literally every surface in the room. Just the smell made it crystal clear.

All of them, even the knights, froze in place at the sight of the viscera covered room. One officer even tore off his helmet and ran outside to vomit in an insane breach of protocol.

But then they saw who was sitting in the middle of it all. Their target. Lord Brudo. Wearing an expression that looked like he had been waiting for them to arrive for a good long while.

Everyone (except the officer who ran outside) stood there, shocked to silence by what they saw. The realization that this red mess had been _people _once was a terrible thing to think about, and they fought back the urge to vomit, lest they suffer the same fate as the officer who had just fled.

But.

There was no time to dwell on who all these remains belonged to. That was for forensics. They had their own job to do. And they had been trained to react calmly and rationally in these sorts of situations. (Even if it was really hard to do in a literal slaughterhouse.) they had their target. The enemy was right in front of them. Waiting. Without any sort of weapon, and making no attempts at escape.

It was time. They had to do their duty as best they saw it.

"H-hands up Avarius!" The sergeant said, pointing his machine gun at Brudo's forehead, who didn't response beyond sinking further into his chair and giving them a look that said "get it over with already."

"Hands up!" He repeated. But Brudo stayed still.

'Alright.' The sergeant thought. 'Playtime's over.' He took a step forward. No more cowering like children from the bloodbath in front of them. The target was not cooperating, so the only option left was to take him in by force.

"Move forward and restrain him." The sergeant said to the others. "That's an order."

All the swat team members and the knights gulped reflexively and in unison, but didn't disobey. They speed-walked over to the Avarius Lord, ignoring the crunching of the scabbed floor beneath their feet. They all silently reminded themselves to take a shirt with a few hundred gallons of disinfectant after all this was over. It was either that, or setting themselves on fire. None of them think of any better way to make sure that they didn't catch a million different diseases by walking around in this.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity they were within a few feet of Brudo. The sergeant pulled out a pair of handcuffs and prepared to grab the Lord and finally arrest him. But as he took one final step forward, he suddenly felt something tugging at his ankle. Something thin and made of metal.

He paused, looked down, and with a expression of complete petrification, he saw the wire that Bren had Tom place earlier, stretching and straining as he pushed his leg against it. The others behind him didn't even realize why he had stopped at first until they heard the wire snap and their gaze went towards a barrel in the corner of the foyer, half hidden by the shadows. Just like their superior, their eyes widened even more as a small light appeared above the barrel, the spark that was to ignite the fluid inside.

The sergeant blinked.

Brudo sighed.

And then, like it was signaling a new day, a miniature sun erupted over the horizon.

It all happened so fast.

The second the barrel full of Bren's flammable and explosive formula has been set on fire, it detonated with all the force and power of a hellfire missile, only it was much more powerful and deadly.

In an instant, the sergeant, the swat team, the knights, and Brudo himself, almost smiling perhaps, were vaporized. The explosion then decimated the entire mansion a moment later, the fireball that it had unleashed quickly consuming the other two teams and the dozens of police officers waiting outside. The only mercy granted to them by this was that it was a quick death, at the cost of it being one that wouldn't leave anything behind to bury. Nobody had died a good death that day, and the cycle was bound to continue.

Unfortunately however, this was only the first of many horrors yet to come. Milliseconds after the police had been erased from existence, the wall of flames shot outward and expanded into the main town, overtaking the streets and killing the dozens of civilians standing nearby, who had gathered together after wondering why a dozen police cars had parked outside Avarius mansion. The few that had driving by or watching from their own cars were briefly cooked alive before perishing brutally as the heat melted the metal shell that surrounded them, akin to being in a giant oven.

Every building suffered as well, not just people or the various vehicles nearby. Entire structures collapsed as the sheer weight of the blast slammed into them, crushing anyone inside and causing further destruction. This continued for an entire block away from the epicenter, just like Bren promised it would. Hundreds were killed in only a few seconds as the makeshift bomb finally reached its full potential.

But it was far from over. The shockwave from the blast carried itself over the town and shattered windows a mile away, creating a whirlwind of sharpened glass that resulted in thousands of cuts and other injuries. Tree were topped and trucks were tipped over as it hit every square inch of Earthni, ensuring that Bren's final plan to destroy Brudo was exclusive to no one. The roar of the explosion nearly deafened half the town, clocking in at over 150 decibels.

After the shockwave had subsided, there was still one more thing left in store for the remaining victims of this calamity. The gigantic stones that had made up Avarius mansion were sent flying in all directions by the bomb, and came back down with ill results. At the Diazes house, Eclipsa and Rafael had just finished recovering from the the initial panic attack they had after the detonation when one of these giant rocks smashed into Eclipsa's car parked outside, obliterating it beyond repair and causing them both to scream in terror.

But others weren't so lucky as to only lose a car. Houses collapsed in on themselves as the destructive rock rain fell like a meteor shower on top of them, creating massive explosions of splitters and bricks that tore through everything in sight. At least a hundred more died in the final consequence of the blast, nothing more but collateral damage.

And then, once the last stone had dropped, all went quiet. The dust settled, and everyone got up from where they had fallen. All that was left of Avarius mansion and everything around it was a smoldering crater, and the townsfolk remained silent as they saw what had come to pass.

But soon they found their voices.

And then the screams of horror and pain, of grief and anguish, and of shock and disbelief began. Ringing through the air, the collective screech being almost as loud as the explosion itself. Nobody knew why this had happened, but one thing was abundantly clear.

As long as their enemy continued to survive, things would never be good, and they would never be safe from his wrath.

Not if they fought him for a million years more.

**End chapter 19**

**A/N: Yup. They're all dead. Just like that. All the knights except for Higgs and Stabby, Brudo, the entire police force, and of course, hundreds of unnamed people. This is what the demon attack would have been if everyone wasn't at the mansion. Just pure death all around, with innocents getting killed left and right. I hope the explosion scene was well written, along with everything else. This was one hell of a chapter to write.**

**I don't think they'll get this long again though, at the very least, from now on there will be a shorter wait. Sorry for taking a month, but everything going on in my life combined with the anxiety from wanting (needing?) to finish these chapters is making things harder so I hope you all understand.**

**So...until next time.**


	21. Chapter 20: Meeting madness, part 3

**Aflame **

**Chapter 20**

**Meeting madness, part 3**

…

Typed recording #21359

Date: 6/8/19

Emergency Mewnian high council meeting #4. Total meeting number overall: 59.

Reason for emergency meeting: Dealing with the aftermath of the large explosion that consumed a portion of the town and caused the deaths of an estimated 794 humans, Mewmans, and monsters. (Total death count still in effect, due to change.)

Secondary reason: None.

**Members present based on location and/or position:**

…

Everyone.

(Except for the Lucitor family, who's fate is now known and will be explained during the meeting, as explained by Queen Eclipsa to me (Shawn) beforehand.)

(Also Moon and River Butterfly, who are currently visiting their daughter Star Butterfly in the hospital, a fact unbeknownst to the other royals.)

The meeting has now begun.

* * *

There was a grim silence in the air as the Mewnian Royals that made up the High Council shuffled into their meeting room, a large piece of cardboard placed over the nearby broken window, and heavily armed guards lining the entire room as well as the inside and outside of the building, make security more tight than it ever had been.

A necessary precaution. Not a single one of them wanted a repeat of the last meeting. There were still bloodstains on the pavement below from where Tom had pushed that unfortunate guard out the window. A dismal affair, if anything. And now they were back. In the same old hellish room. As per usual, they all loathed being here, but didn't complain. Like the last meeting, this was an emergency one, only much more important. Outside, fires were still being put out on the very outskirts of the town, the results of flaming ash coming down like snow and setting numerous things ablaze.

Just another reminder of why they needed to be here. They sat down in their chairs, the furniture squeaking and sliding against the newly waxed floors. Nobody paid it any mind. Nobody could possibly find it within themselves to care about something so meager and unimportant as chairs. Not even if they had spikes lining them would they notice. Their minds were filled to the brink with thoughts, all of them worrisome and negative. They had _no _idea what was going on. All they knew was that Avarius mansion had been blown up, Bren was almost certainly the cause (like most bad things nowadays), and that the entire town was going to shit.

But other than that, they were in the dark. About Brudo, about the fate of the knights and the now extinct police department, and most certainly about the fire god and what it did to Star and Marco. (And they didn't even know the fire-god existed at this time.) But they already knew that whatever was coming next, it was going to be one hell of a conversation.

So they sat, and they waited. It was so quiet that a person could hear a pin drop.

One second passed by.

Then two.

Then three.

And then four.

And after a full minute had passed with nobody saying a word, Eclipsa began to wonder if she should speak first.

Naturally, it was tradition for her to start these things off, as she was the one that brought them together. But after yesterday's events, she felt it would be better to let someone else have the first word. Obviously, she was mistaken. Every eye was on her, begging for answers. Every kingdom had lost people that day. The Jaggy's, the Johansen's, the Waterfolk, even the damn Pigeon kingdom had roughly fourteen of their civilians turned into fried chicken by the blast. They had been sitting in a nearby power wire, and the only reason anyone was aware of these deaths at all was that there were originally fifteen of them, and one someone to weakly fly back to Rich's castle and give him the news, before collapsing.

As if it needed reporting…

But said Pigeon was placed into critical care at the Echo creek hospital, as anything their fellow birds could provide them with was completely inferior to Earth medicine. He was one of the lucky ones. He had been taken to the hospital first, an advantage of the ones transporting him there having wings. A thousands other innocents later, and the beds were full and everyone else had to be driven to the next town over. Ten more people died during that time, and more were likely to follow. Some of the injuries that had been inflicted on the townspeople were just too much.

Eclipsa herself had gone outside the first chance she got, moving faster than she had ever gone in years. She had tried to get to the epicenter of the blast to see what it was, what had caused it. She didn't get close. Giants fires still raged and incinerated anyone that tried to get near the crater, so that wasn't an option. But she saw enough. Dust covering the air like a thick mist, invading her lungs and making her feel like someone was pouring liquid concrete down her throat. She had to get out of it. Get _away _from it. That was what her brain had been screaming at her at that moment. To get away. Away from it all.

So she did. In a moment of selfishness for her people, she ran back to the Monster Temple, which was high up enough that the worst of the dust cloud and the fires didn't reach it. She simply took a seat on one of the many steps leading up to it, a shell-shocked expression on her face. Even if she had spent no more than five minutes down there, it had been enough. The horrors she had seen...the wounded and dying people, crowding the streets like a mob of zombies, nothing but shadows slowly moving by in the distance.. The cries of mercy, both for help and for someone to put them out of their misery, sounding akin to dying animals. And the dead? Oh the dead. Dozens of bodies littering the streets. So badly burned or managed that it was impossible to identify them. And she had seen it. She had seen them all.

Later that night, she didn't dare try to sleep, as she knew that the nightmares would keep her up anyways. Not that she was the only one. Nobody in town slept a wink that night. How could they? Just like Bren had predicted, everyone was terrified that another attack could strike at any time. Several people had already left town out of fear for their safety, bringing its total population to an even lower number. Where they had gone was anyone's guess, but it had to be far, far away from here. And who could blame them? After what had happened, Eclipsa herself was tempted to simply get up and get as far away as possible.

That is, of course, if her car hadn't been flattened by a giant flying rock. The Diazes driveway would unfortunately be unusable for the moment, as one crushed car and a broken driveway was not high on the list of necessary damage control.

Although...that list was ambiguous. After the safety of

the people was secured, nobody knew where to even start. The fire department had put out most of the fires, and cleared away rubble that was in their way, but that was as far as it went at the moment. The survivors whose homes were decimated in the blast were all moved to the town community center as a temporary place to live. None of them complained. Frankly, most of them were simply happy to be alive, unlike so many of their peers.

But what had they done? What had been accomplished in the 19 hours since a tenth of the town was destroyed? They had stopped the fires. Saved some lives. And cleared the bodies. Nothing else. An ever present cloud of dust and smoke still hung in the air, blocking out the sun and making it seem like late evening rather than the middle of the day. Nothing but another grim reminder of the calamity that had befell them, which there were so many of. The work to get all the corpses off the streets, something that the Mayor had made paramount, carried on deep into the night, and by morning every single person who had died was collected.

Well, those who were still in one or two pieces anyways. Which wasn't that high of a number. _That _little cleanup might take weeks to finish, if not months. Obviously, they were a bit short on volunteers at the moment.

And after over twelve hours of giving orders, running around, receiving calls, and reviewing all the damage, Eclipsa and the Mayor were burned out. But they didn't stop. The Mayor had pinched himself so many times that there was a small scab on his arm, while Eclipsa took to drinking coffee that was fresh out of the pot, using the pain and intense burning sensation to jolt herself awake. Globgor had called her in a panic, pleading with her to sit down and relax for a few minutes. She ignored this. She had to keep going. And it was more than just "it's my duty as Queen." It was because Eclipsa knew that this could ruin _everything_.

The town was already nearing the breaking point after the demon attack. Even after the speech that Star had made, there was still much complaining and grumbling. Now those effects would be worsened tenfold. Once the initial shock of what had happened wore off, the townspeople would be out for blood. They'd want _someone's _head on a stake by the end of the day, and Eclipsa also knew that it wouldn't be Bren's unless he allowed himself to be captured.

And Bren wouldn't take the full blame here unless they convinced them otherwise. That was going to fall upon Eclipsa and/or the mayor, for letting this happen and failing to protect Earthni. Riots would ensue. The streets would once again run red with blood as the pressure that had been building up inside the citizens exploded in a truly catastrophic and epic way.

This could be the end of Earthni. A vision of her and her family being dragged out of the monster temple and executed in front of it flashed through Eclipsa's mind. By an out of control and vengeful townsfolk, destroying anything they got their hands on. This world..._their _world...that they had fought for so long to protect…...nothing but a lost cause. The military would be sent in, with lethal force authorized, and every last one of them…

Gone.

Wiped out. Completely and utterly destroyed. By then, anything who saw that this wasn't right would already be dead. Torn apart by the ones who had gone blind with such rage that they were nothing but animals. _Less _than animals. A force of nature, fueled by pure vengeance. And at that point, the person they used to be would cease to exist, replaced by a mindless monster that only wished to see everything around them as twisted and broken as they were.

But perhaps this was a bit of an exaggeration. It was just a vision in Eclipsa's head after all, simply brought on by all the horrible stuff she had just witnessed. But to her, it seemed like a likely possibility. The worst-case scenario. And Bren would laugh and watch it all from afar, happy to see that his little plan had come to fruition in the most brutal of ways.

Only he hadn't.

Because that _wasn't _his plan. His plan was not to stand by and let the people tear themselves apart. No, he was going to do it himself. What that plan was, Eclipsa wasn't sure. No one was. Except for perhaps Zudo. The Queen shifted her gaze over to the other side of the room, where the Avarius child was sitting at the end of the table, a traumatized look on his face while he held in his hands some kind of stuffed toy. No doubt some kind of way to comfort himself, although it didn't seem to be working that well.

But he was there. He had spilled the beans. After the explosion, he had come running into the Monster Temple and was found by Globgor, who was holding down the fort there. Apparently, he was in possession of some information about Bren, Tom, and Brudo that was "extremely important" and that "everyone needed to know." That was about as far as he got though, as Globgor had ushered him into another room as he started letting wounded and dying people in the temple, each one of them seeking some form of refuge from the burning hellscape outside. All of them had been let in, even if most of them were far beyond help.

So that meant that whatever secrets Zudo held, they were to be revealed today, in this meeting. The boy had been reluctant to divulge exactly _how _he obtained this information, as when asked before being led away, he started mumbling about a "red room" and as well as somebody with "white hair", a detail that was hardly vague anymore to Eclipsa and the rest of the Councill. He had even mentioned something about the Lucitors, a fact that was especially surprising. But the idea that Bren had somehow tortured the boy before blowing up the mansion for whatever reason was an unpleasant one to bear, but all things considered, it looked like that was _exactly _what had happened.

But it was just another thing to add to the list of problems to take care of. Number who-fucking-knows-we're-writing-this-on-a-roll-of-toilet-paper-now, take Zudo to a professional therapist. Preferably one out of town, as they needed a therapist that didn't need therapy themselves. Eclipsa made a quick note of this in her brain, only to say the first word of the meeting and whisper it over to Shawn, as she knew that she would never remember it at a time like this. Shawn gave her a silent nod and typed it down, before giving her a look that told her to start the meeting so he could go home and clean up whatever was left of it.

Eclipsa sighed, cleared her throat that was dry as chalk, and spoke.

"Thank you all for coming." She said, trying to keep her voice as emotionless as possible. It was all she could do to not break down crying on the spot. "As you know...we are currently under attack."

"Currently?!" King Johansen screamed, _currently_ pissed off beyond belief because a good portion of his castle and servants had been crushed by one of the flying boulders. "We're _currently _under attack?! What about that demon's rampage? Does that not count as being "under attack"?!"

Eclipsa flinched away from the king's outburst and cursed internally. She really should have worded that better. But truth be told, no matter how many times she went over it in her head, no speech she could give right now would ever be able to properly explain the severity of the situation.

"I-I apologize. I shouldn't have put it like that." She said. "But please sit down. We can't turn on each other at a time like this. You know that. _All _of you know that. We have to be strong even in the darkest of times. And fighting amongst ourselves will do nothing but make us appear weak."

She put her hands on the table and spent a long time studying each and every face looking at her. "I understand." She lamented. "I can see it in your faces. I know just how much you want to yell and scream at me about how I let this happen and that I should have done something to prevent it. But no matter how angry you get, what happened happened. The finger pointing can come later. For now, the top priority is to discuss our next action."

"..."

The Johansen King, begrudgingly seeing that Eclipsa was making _some _sense, took his seat and crossed his arms. His demeanor was now the same as the rest of the room's. Angry, but finally understanding that this was not the time.

"Thank Mewni…" Eclipsa muttered under her breath, expecting that to go much worse. "Now. Now…...damage control. What do we have? How bad is it at the moment?"

"It's simply...horrific." The Waterfolk Queen said, taking a stack of soggy papers out from underneath her chair. "Everything within a block of the explosion is gone. Including the 586 people that were in said block. This, of course, includes Lord Brudo himself, the entirety of the Echo Creek police department, and all of the Mewnian royals knights, except for Higgs and Sir Stabby, who were thankfully at monster village at the time."

Despite already being mostly aware of these figures, it still hurt Eclipsa to hear it. When Bren arrived a while ago and murdered Mina, she knew that the former Solarian wouldn't be the only death in this war. He had proved that he had no qualms against killing. The Queen had made sure to fabricate several plans later on, all of them designed to deal with any public backlash in the event that Bren attempted to try something bigger and with more casualties.

But those plans only ever went up to situations with fifty deaths in mind. Almost nothing compared to what was happening now. She couldn't have imagined that it would get this bad. That Bren would do something _this _deadly, and he likely didn't even bat an eyelid at the idea.

She had underestimated him. What he was capable of. What he could do when he got mad and decided to take things up a step. Because she had been informed that he was _definitely _angry when this happened. This was all out of rage. But not at them, oh no, this was because of _Brudo. _And how did she know this? Why Zudo, of course. After everyone with functioning legs had made it inside the Temple, Globgor made sure to check on the boy yet again, only to find him mumbling about something besides red rooms and barrels filled with liquid death. Something about how his father "brought this on himself" and that Bren "wasn't happy with him."

At this point, an imbecile could figure out why this happened. Brudo had apparently been working with Bren, but he did something that pissed him off. (Helping Mina's followers perhaps?) Therefore, public enemy number one had blown up the mansion as an act of revenge.

It sounded like petty revenge to her. Hopefully more about that mess would be filled in when Zudo explained the whole thing. If he _could _explain the whole thing. That little hope was...ambiguous, at best.

"I see." Eclipsa whispered. "So there are really no surviving members of the police? None at all?"

"I believe that there are five officers that were stationed elsewhere at the time, so no." The Waterfolk Queen said. "But everyone else is either call receivers or investigators, so those five officers are all we have to control what remains of the town at the moment. At least on the Earth side."

"And on the Mewnian side?" Eclipsa asked, although it came out as more of a sigh, something they had all been doing too much of these days.

"Several hundred knights altogether if we combine the forces of _every _kingdom." The Folk Queen answered. "However, Sir Stabby is currently the only Knight with any _real _battle experience. Everyone else that fought in the monster wars a few decades ago are retired or dead, and thus they will be unable to help us. And what's more, we have determined that the hundreds of knights we have are not fit to effectively police or defend the town like their predecessors. They would only be useful in a full-fledged battle with hundreds of opponents, and that's as far as it goes."

'Shit.' Eclipsa thought. 'Hundreds of opponents. I doubt Bren has anymore than a few dozen on his payroll. If he even goes that route from this point on. If he continues to blow things up like this, then there's really nothing we can do to stop it. He'd have Tom teleport in, plant a bomb, then leave. It'd explode, killing hundreds of people, and he just repeats that process until we're all dead. The end. He wins, we lose, and so ends the short-lived ballad of Earthni. And we wouldn't even know the true reason about why he did all this in the first place…'

Eclipsa then shook her head slightly, knowing that she couldn't let her thoughts get off-topic. Not here. Not now. Still, she couldn't help herself as another question came to mind, this one with more frustration behind it than worry.

'Where the hell were those hundreds of knights during the demon attack by the way?' She thought. 'Sitting comfortably while the town loses thousands of dollars by the minute, or…". A spark of realization came across her face, making her recall an event that she had tried to forget about for twelve hours or so. 'Scratch that actually. They were probably at Avarius mansion with everyone else, inside those cursed _soundproof _walls. They have taxes to pay as well after all. Maybe I could ask the state to give us permission to not need to pay any of those off for the time being. While we clean everything up and mourn our losses. Which reminds me…'

"What is the outside reaction?" She asked, hoping that they might receive some foreign aid for this whole disaster. 'What does the state and the U.S. government have to say about this? Almost a thousand people just died. They had to have taken notice."

"As of right now, I know it's being reported across the entire country, possibly the world." Janna said, who had been invited as a stand-in to Star and Marco not being there. "I got a phone call this morning from one of my relatives who lives in New York asking if I was okay and what exactly was going down over here. So if somebody's going to come to our rescue and help out, then it should be soon. As for the government…" She looked away and shook her head. "I don't know anything about that. I think they're analyzing the situation at the moment. Seeing the best way to respond and if they should get involved or not. Just like us…"

"Involved or not?!" Queen Jaggy echoed, shocked by this revelation. "Are you saying there's a chance that they'll ignore this entirely and leave us to fend for ourselves?"

"I didn't say that, geez." Janna said. "All I said was that they hadn't responded yet and what I _personally _think they're doing. Although...yeah. It may be a possibility that they want nothing to do with us."

"Why? Do you think they're scared of Bren?" Queen Jaggy asked.

"No." Janna said, leaning back in her chair. "Well, maybe. I don't know. For one thing, I'm not sure how much they even know to begin with. We literally made the news about who he was public only yesterday morning. And he's only shown himself a few times and been around for maybe a week, ever since Mina's death. I would be surprised if they know more about him than we do."

"And assuming they somehow know _everything _about him that we do?" The Waterfolk King asked.

Janna shrugged. "Then yeah. I think they'd be scared. If this is the case, if they're aware he exists, they know about Tom as well. They know he can go _anywhere _on Earth with his demon powers. If Bren wanted, he could literally have him teleport into the Oval Office, kill the President or something, and then get out. All in the span of a few seconds or so. Seriously. There's so much he's able to do with that. But...there is another theory I have about this whole thing…"

"What is it?" Eclipsa asked.

"I think he already contacted the government and told him not to interfere with whatever he had planned." Janna said. "Maybe did some show of force with Tom that we don't know about. It's obvious he's thought of almost every way we can stop him and likely planned some way to counter it later on. That's why he told Star and Marco to do their best to stop him. Because he thinks they _can't_. That he's invincible and thought of all the variables way ahead of time. And honestly, I think he might have."

"So...you believe the government is basically kneeling down to him?"

"I'm saying it's a possibility." Janna said. "If this is what was actually happening, I wouldn't be surprised. And if one of us gets an email explaining how they "can't help us at the moment" then we'll know for sure that that's exactly what's happening."

"So...if that's the case…what do we do?" Globgor asked.

"Nothing. What _can _we do?" Janna asked rhetorically. "If he's got the entire government under his boot heel with Tom, then it's not like we can do much to stop it. If we try to do something, we'd be going against an entire country. The same one that, may I remind you, Earthni currently resides in. So yeah. Not a good idea."

"Damn it all…" Eclipsa mumbled. While what Janna just said was still a theory with no real evidence as of yet, it made too much sense to simply ignore. It was all starting to make too much sense. Earthni was something entirely new that had been brought to the world. Something that must be studied and protected and preserved. And the government had the honor of it being put in _their _country. But they hadn't as much as lifted a finger when help was needed. Nobody had helped them after the demon attack. They had received no money or aid for that little disaster. Odd, yes, but since no deaths were reported, Eclipsa passed it off as the usual since "nobody died, nobody cared" rule she had come to see in Earth media.

However, this didn't make much sense either. As mentioned earlier, Earthni was still something new that hundreds of scientists and journalists had flocked to after it appeared. They should still _be _here. There were enough non-Earth parts of Earthni to satisfy those people's cravings for a few lifetimes. And yet, the only outsiders that came anymore were tourists. For some reason, she had failed to recognize the fact that everyone _not _from Echo creek or Mewni had seemingly up and left one day, leaving no trace of their existence.

No way this was just a coincidence. No way the government didn't have eyes on this place at all times and didn't see that half the town had been smashed to pieces by literal hellspawn. They...they had _ignored _this. Brushed it under the carpet. And Eclipsa has a feeling that they would ignore this explosion as well. That everyone would. Be-because Bren got to them all and threatened to do to them what he was doing to Earthni just like Janna theorized!

"THAT'S IT!" She yelled, suddenly slamming her hands down on the table and giving everyone a mini-heart attack. The room was briefly filled with a stunned silence, before Ponyhead spoke up, tilting her head (which was to say, her entire body) at the Queen.

"Uh, what's it?" She asked. "What's going on now? Is more crazy Bren shit happening, or this some weird Queen thing that I'm going to have to face one da-"

"It all makes sense now!" Eclipsa said, ignoring and interrupting the flying head. "That's why tourists are the only outsiders who have come into the town for months! That's why I'm not getting anymore reports of news hacks trying to interview random people on the street! That's why even though the government said they would help us with anything we needed after our two worlds merged, they haven't done _anything for us_! Bren's gotten to them all! He and Tom have the entire damn country doing what he wants them to!"

Once again, the room was filled with silence. But this was no normal silence. This was _realization_ silence. The worst kind in fact. When one finally sees that they have been lied to, deceived, tricked, bamboozled, whatever, and they are completely and entirely alone in whatever perilous situation they happen to be in. This is what the Royals were experiencing. Although Eclipsa's rant had been fast-paced and rather loud, it was coherent enough for them to understand.

They were on their own.

Everything and everyone outside Earthni was under the control of their worst enemy.

Probably, at least. They still didn't have any proof after all. Just Janna's theory and Eclipsa's sudden yelling. But that was all that was needed. Just like Eclipsa had done a minute ago, they started to think about how that theory made more and more sense. Almost every mind in the room was filled with the same thoughts as the one sitting next to it, all with identical expressions. It would actually be quite comical, if this had taken place in any other context.

A collective "shiiiiieeeeetttt…" came over the room, and all of them looked in different directions. Some at the floor. Some at the ceiling. But none of them could meet each other' eyes. They didn't want to see the despair of their fellow Royals. Without any outside aid, this whole thing could take a turn for the worst at any time. Even more so than right now. If the citizens found out, for instance...

They had to prevent this from getting out.

"New plan." Eclipsa announced. "I'm declaring that everything said in this meeting is now top secret, even more so than usual. Not a single word of what was said leaks to the outside under _any _circumstances. Anybody that talks will be imprisoned, under the crime of sharing secrets with the enemy."

"Isn't that a bit extreme?" Janna asked. "I agree, none of what we found out should be known publicly, but sharing secrets with the "enemy" isn't exactly accurate..."

"Is it? Is it not?" Eclipsa asked. "Janna-no, _everyone _listen up. That explosion happened because we were ignorant of the fact that Brudo was working for Bren. If we knew sooner, then this could have been prevented." She pointed at one of the windows, and everyone glanced at it reflexively. "Anyone out there might be working for him. Not a single person can be ruled out. I only trust all of _you _because I've met with you all in person, before the two worlds even merged, and I think I know you all well enough that you aren't working for him. It sounds odd, yes, but I can easily tell. It's something I've learned to do through all my years of dealing with traitors and backstabbers."

Over in the corner of the table, a single bead of sweat rolled down Buff Frog's forehead, unnoticed by all.

"Therefore, none of you are suspects. But...know this. I am issuing a new policy." She said, her tone now turning deadly serious. "I will be making an announcement. And that is anybody in town who has aligned themselves or is otherwise conspiring with Bren may come clean, and _no _punishment will be given to them. But if they are working with him, and if they're found out without ever telling us…"

She took a deep breath.

"They will be executed for treason, whether they're human, Mewman, or monster. No exceptions. There will also be no trial for them. They will be captured, and they will die the next morning. We will take care of this problem as quickly and as effectively as possible."

The room remained silent. No one even muttered something under their breath after this announcement, as if they were scared Eclipsa would execute _them _if they tried to say anything about it.

Except, of course, Janna, who spoke up once again and freely shared her opinion.

"That's...that's a terrible idea." She said, shaking her head in disappointment and making everyone look at her. She sighed and crossed her hands on the table, the fear that was being pumped through the others evidently not present in her. "Eclipsa, that's not going to work. History has proved that this kind of thing always ends badly."

"How so?" The Queen asked, her tone making her sound like she wasn't in her right mind. "It's fast, it's effective, it will cause anyone who works with him to show themselves out of fear-"

"Exactly." Janna said. "_Fear._ We can't use that against the town. That's cruel and...basically the kind of thing a dictator would do."

"I suppose you have a bit of a point." Eclipsa said sadly. "And I admit, this whole plan is rather dictator-esque. But I see it as necessary at a time like this. And...if you don't mind me asking, what did you mean by "history has proved this kind of thing always ends badly?"

Janna clenched her hands together like she was a CEO in a board meeting. "Ever heard of the French Revolution?" She asked. "Probably not. It was an event that took place on Earth a couple hundred years ago. Basically, what happened is that one day, in a country called France over in Europe, the lower class decided that they had enough with the low food supply, the absurdly high food prices, and the endless amount of taxes they received for stuff. So they threw a revolution, and killed the king of France by chopping off his head, along with the heads of most of the upper class."

"That's...exceedingly brutal." Eclipsa said. "And rather savage, for the people of a country to do that to a king."

"Times were different."

"I certainly hope so. But what are you trying to say by this? That we're going to lose our heads as well-"

"Actually, the story isn't over yet." Janna said. "After they killed him, the lower class tried to form their own government, and eventually they started murdering everyone that they suspected was even slightly against the revolution. Thousands of people died in the whole thing, until the leader of this government, a guy named Robespierre, got _his _head cut off and it all finally died down."

"..."

"What I'm trying to say is that we'll all be acting like Robespierre if we do this." Janna concluded. "And just like him, if you start executing people left and right, you'll lose sight of what you're trying to do. After a while, you'll see enemies everywhere and assume that everyone is out to get you except the ones you trust most. _That's _when you go full dictator mode and start killing random and innocent people that have nothing to do with Bren. And when the citizens get tired of our bullshit, _all _our heads will be on the chopping block, and it'll be your fault Eclipsa."

Eclipsa didn't speak, now thoroughly embarrassed for having suggested such a plan. Janna was right after all. What would the citizens do if she really enacted this thing? Turn against her, and then the Council, and before long they'd all suffer the same fate as this Robespierre. Killed by the townsfolk that they were supposed to protect.

What an ironic fate.

"Then what do you suggest?" Eclipsa asked.

"Simple." Janna said. "We do the first few parts of your plan. Tell the town that anyone working with Bren can turn themselves in and there'll be no punishment. I personally don't think that's going to work because Bren's just going to murder them if they do that, so yeah. But still, we should try it anyway, and maybe we'll get lucky. All or nothing there. Now for the other part. Yes, anyone who we think is in league with him has to be taken in and investigated. But if they actually _are _working for him, we don't kill them. We put them in a holding cell that's too small for him to teleport into until we get them to tell everything we want to know about Bren. His plans. His lackeys. Everything."

"How do you suppose we get that information out of them?" Princess Penelope asked.

Janna shrugged. "I don't know." She said. "Get creative."

"Wait, so you're against the idea of killing these traitors but you're _for _torturing them?" Queen Johansen asked. "What kind of logic is that?"

"I never said torture." Janna claimed. "I said get creative. Do what you have to. If it comes to torture, fine. But what we're _not _going to do is instantly murder anyone we suspect of being against the Revolut-I mean, who we suspect of working with Bren."

"..."

"All in favor?" Janna asked. "Who here agrees with my plan?"

Slowly but surely, every person in the room put their hand up, even Eclipsa (who actually put her hand up first) and soon it was obvious what the plan was.

"Neat. Looks like I have the majority vote." Janna said. "I should come to these things more often."

"Trust me, you really don't want to do that." Globgor warned. "But at least we've all in agreement on this. It's a start."

"If that's what you want to call it." The Johansen King commented. "But now that we've gotten out of the way, what's the next topic? How are the town's food supplies? Are we going to be running out of meat?"

Despite the frivolous personal meaning behind the King's question, he brought up a good one. The town's main grocery store had been one of the buildings caught up in the explosion. Thankfully it was closed at the time, but still. Everything inside was lost. Including, obviously, all the food.

"He actually brings up a good point." Globgor said. "How _is _the food situation? With that human food store-"

"Grocery store." Janna corrected.

"..._Grocery _store…" Globgor echoed. "Out of, uh, commission, how are we going to feed everybody?"

"We shouldn't have to worry about that for a while." Eclipsa said. "Or at all really. We still have dozens of acres of corn and other crops that were untouched by the blast apart from some damage by the rocks. There are fields that are _still _waiting to be harvested. Along with the personal food supplies everyone should already have at home, and with the recent development from yesterday, it should be easier to count...to...erm…" She couldn't bring herself to say it, so the one person who was acting completely unperturbed by all of this did.

"What Eclipsa's trying to say is that because so many people just died, there's more food for the rest." Janna said. "Brutal, yes. Harsh, yes. But honest. If anything, the only good that came out of this whole mess is that there's a lot less mouths to feed."

Rich Pigeon looked disgusted by this statement. "What a-"

"Horrible thing to say?" Janna said, glancing at him with zero emotion. "Yup. But these are trying times, you know? We don't have the capacity to say nice things anymore."

"But you just stopped Eclipsa from enacting that law that'd basically be condemning a bunch of innocent people." Penelope pointed out.

"Sure. But this isn't the same thing as killing people. It's taking advantage of the fact that they're already dead." Janna claimed. "Face it. It's all or nothing now. If we're going to win this little war, then we have to do whatever we can to win." She paused. "As long as it doesn't involve murdering anybody of course. Except Bren. And maybe Tom when I get my hands on him for letting this happen to himself."

"That reminds me…" King Waterfolk said. "About the Lucitors. I was informed before the meeting that we have new information on what happened to them."

"I _suppose _you could put it that way." Eclipsa said.

"But...that's exactly what _you _told us." King Ponyhead said. "You literally said that "we have new information about what happened to the Lucitors". Was that all a lie?"

"It was not." Eclipsa claimed. "However, the way we _have _this info is...tricky. And based completely on something my husband overheard from Zudo."

"Oh, is that why he's here?" King Jaggy asked, shifting his gaze over to him. "I was wondering about that, but didn't want to speak up…"

"Yes, well, Zudo is here because he was at the mansion before the explosion happened and witnessed some of the events that led up to it, and he is also in possession of information that might help out with _why _this occurred and perhaps what we could do to prevent a similar event in the future. And since we should really hurry this up...Zudo?" She asked. "Do you think you can tell us what happened?"

As per usual whenever someone's name was mentioned, all eyes fell on Zudo, making him shrink further into his chair as the attention of every person in the room fell on him. It was plain to see that everyone staring at him at once was making the boy _very_ uncomfortable, judging by the way he was clutching his stuffed toy so hard to his chest that one of the seams started to tear, spilling it's fluffy insides all over the floor.

"I…" He started, sweating nervously and wondering why he had ever agreed to this meeting. "I'm not sure if…"

"It's okay." Eclipsa said, reassuring him. "Nobody's going to hurt you for speaking up, and you can take all the time that you need. You-"

"But it's not okay!" He yelled, tears starting to form in his eyes. Eclipsa reared back a little at this shout, considering that Zudo had been more quiet then monsterly possible for most of the meeting. "You said they no one's going to hurt me, but the reason I'm so worried is because that's the opposite of what's going to happen!"

"What do you mean?" Princess Jaggy asked.

Zudo sniffed and hugged his knees to his chest. "It was after the explosion." He sobbed. "I was practically blind with terror, so I ran to the first place that I _knew _would be safe. The Monster Temple. I burst in, saw Globgor, and started telling him about a bunch of stuff that Bren in some attempt to explain why this was going on. I don't know why. Maybe I just wasn't thinking right at the moment, or maybe it was from the shock. Maybe I just wanted to help out."

A few of the royals glanced at Globgor, who sighed and spoke up in response. "Yeah, he told me a few things. Stuff about a red room, stuff about Bren, stuff about the Lucitors." The monster then paused. "And then he mumbled something about Avarius mansion, and that's when things started to fit together. I realized that Bren did this, the explosion started from the mansion, all that." He looked at Zudo. "But why are you considering that to be a bad thing?"

"Because, like I said, I wasn't thinking right." Zudo repeated/wailed. "I forgot what Bren told me right before he let me go, after he used me as a bargaining chip."

"Wait, bargaining chip?" King Ponyhead asked. "What exactly went down at that-"

"Shh, let him finish." Eclipsa said. "Zudo, please continue."

"O-okay." He said. "So, Bren told me that if I said anything about what I overheard at the mansion, he'd...he'd…"

"He'd what?" King Spiderbite asked, getting fed up with the constant pauses and not caring about what Zudo had been through. "Hurry it up boy, we don't have all day-"

"He said he'd kill me!" Zudo blurted out, now clutching his toy so hard he had almost ripped one of the arms off. "If I told you-no, _anybody _about anything, then Bren would send Tom to do exactly what he did to my dad. That's why I've been so worried. Because I did. I told Globgor some stuff that I was supposed to keep quiet about. Sure, he might not have understood all of it, but I don't think that split-eyed monster will discriminate."

The royals inhaled sharply as they finally understood. If this was true, and Bren was watching him as he shared his secrets with Globgor, then Zudo was as good as dead. With Tom he could teleport almost anywhere he wanted, and by then it would only take a second for him to reach out, snap the boy's neck, and then go back to wherever he came from.

And Zudo of course knew this better than any of them. It certainly explained all the crying and why he was holding his stuffed toy like that. He may as well have a target painted on his head.

"Oh Zudo…" Eclipsa started solemnly, hardly able to understand what he must be feeling. "Very well. I will send somebody to take you home from this meeting, and I will also make sure that you are guarded _at all times _by some of our most elite kni-"

"No." Zudo said. "No point. I'm already dead. It doesn't matter how many people you have protecting me, they won't be able to be by my side forever. And if that's truly the case, then I'm going to tell you _everything _I know, because I want to help all of you with this."

"Zudo, that's not not necessary." Eclipsa said, pleading with him. "If he's really after you now, then-"

"There's nothing we can do." Zudo interrupted, finishing her sentence. "Do you really think a couple of guards will stop him from murdering me?"

Eclipsa's mind put the word "no" into her head, because that's exactly what she was thinking, but that'd only make the mood worse and she knew it. She didn't need to say it anyways, because they were _all _thinking this. If Bren had managed to blow up the mansion and a good portion of the two before anyone had a chance to stop it, then killing Zudo would be a piece of cake.

"...Yeah, I thought so." He said, reading it on their faces, while his own held an expression that was eerily similar to his father's right before he died. The expression of a dead man walking. (Or sitting in Brudo's case.) "So ask me what you want to know and let's get this over with. Don't guarantee I'll give you a straight answer though. All of this is stuff I overheard anyway, and I was almost blind with fear at that time."

The room was silent for a moment. The tone in Zudo's voice was a unique one. It almost made them shiver in their shows, and if not for the seriousness involved with the situation, they might have laughed. The royals of Mewni, being intimidated by a mere monster child.

A monster child that had seen and heard the worst that the world had to offer at that mansion.

Ponyhead spoke up first, currently live-streaming the whole meeting with a hidden camera attached to her horn.

"How did this happen?" She asked. "What did brain-dead Bren do that caused half the town to go kaboom?"

"He had a...barrel." Zudo said.

"A barrel?" Ponyhead asked. "How the hell did a _barrel _cause that much-"

"I don't know, but I have to assume that whatever was in that barrel is what caused half the town to go "kaboom." He said, making a few hand motions. "He also had some wire and a few other things I didn't recognize that he grabbed from out of a crate."

"Tripwire." Janna blurted out. "That must be what set off the explosion. And I'm guessing that whatever was inside that barrel was akin to gasoline, so when that swat team set off the wire, something must have ignited it and…" She paused and made the same hand motion Zudo just did. "Poof."

Eclipsa looked like she was going to be ill. "Shit." She muttered/cursed. Again. "Alright. Everyone make sure to watch the ground wherever you go from now on. Just in case Bren put any more of these tripwires in your homes in an attempt to take more lives."

"Why would he do that?" Ponyhead asked. "I thought it was Star he's angry at. And that this whole little mansion thing was a way to get back at her...for some reason. Speaking of which, where is she? And Earthturd? They're always here. They're always stuck to each other like lint or my creepy-ass sisters."

"Both are currently unable to be here." Eclipsa said. "Star is in the hospital, and Earthtu-I mean, _Marco, _has been exempted from this meeting as I thought that would aid in his...recovery."

"Recovery from what?" Ponyhead asked, sighing. "What happened to him now? And also, double what? Star is in the hospital? Is my bestie okay? What did that little white-haired creep do to her?"

"Technically nothing." Eclipsa's said, before mumbling. "That part was all Marco…"

Unfortunately, Ponyhead had excellent hearing, a skill she developed after years of spying on her sisters. "WHAT!" She exclaimed. "What the hell do you mean by "that part was all Marco?" Was _Earthturd _the one who put Star in the hospital?! Oh, when I see him, I am going to cut his heart out and give it to Star as a "get well soon" gift! I will-"

"It's more complicated than that!" Eclipsa yelled, unhappy that this was the way this little bit of information had to come out. "It's much more complicated than whatever you're thinking. And please don't attack Marco. I'd prefer he didn't die twice in the same week."

"Is that so?" Ponyhead asked. "Well guess what, anyone who hurts my bestie is gonna get a horn straight through their chest. I don't care what their relationship is with her or n-wait, what did you say about him dying twice?"

"Like I said." Eclipsa groaned. "It's more complicated than it looks. Yes, Star was put in the hospital by Marco. But at the same time, it wasn't Marco. He was not in control of his actions at the time, was under the influence of another being, and thus it was not his fault." She exhaled. "Now, back to-"

"Oh no!" Ponyhead yelled. "You can't just leave us hanging there! This little story sounds a hundred times more interesting than this meeting, important as it is. I want to hear this."

"It's really not necessary at the moment." Eclipsa said. "And this meeting is more out of importance than of interest. You can be bored out of your mind for all I care, but this is happening. We don't have time to discuss frivolous topics."

"Actually, I want to hear about this also." King Jaggy said. "If something is going around possessing people like that Marco boy, then we have to know what happened so we can prepare a proper counter defense."

"We won't have to worry about that." Eclipsa claimed. "The thing that possessed Marco won't do it again. At least, according to him…"

"What was that last part?" King Ponyhead asked.

"Nothing important." Eclipsa declared. "Just like how the conversation about Marco and his possession isn't important. We can talk about it in a future meeting, but as for right now, can we please get back to the topic at hand before the townsfolk storm in here and demand answers for how we're going to fix this?"

After she said this, a rather awkward silence followed, and the look on everyone's faces alerted Eclipsa to the fact that they weren't going to let her pass this off as "this happened and it sounds important, but forget I ever said that and let's get back to the task," a tactic she was quite fond of using during these meetings. And one that usually worked.

Usually. So it came as no surprise when Ponyhead started complaining about it again, right on schedule.

"Sorry." She said. "But I am not listening to anything you have to say until you tell me how this happened to B-fly and Earthturd. And I'm sure that the whole room agrees with me. If something is out there taking over people's bodies, and _even _if you say it's not a problem anymore, _which it totally is by the way, _then we have to know all the details."

Eclipsa would have argued further, likely to make a comment on her visions of a bloodthirsty townsfolk tearing them apart, but intuition told her better. If she just explained the whole story to them and got it over with, then this would be finished quickly. Although she did make a mental note to ask the Mayor later on if it was possible to exempt a few _specific _Royals from the next meeting, emergency or not.

"Fine." She consented, facepalming and rubbing her nose with her fingers. "I'll tell you what happened. But after that, there will be no more interruptions like it, understand?"

"Totally!" Ponyhead said unconvincingly. "Don't worry. We understand every single word that comes out of your mouth to the letter!"

"Obviously not." Eclipsa mumbled, remembering her earlier protests and making Ponyhead pout at her. She cleared her throat and took a seat in her chair for the first time since the start.

"So. It was after the speech this morning." She said. "When-"

"Wait, are you talking about the whole "help your neighbor" thing I saw in the news this morning?" Ponyhead asked, not even letting the story go on for five seconds before interjecting. "When Star saves you and the mayor from being trampled by an angry mob because nobody liked what you were saying."

"Yes, that is what I'm talking about." Eclipsa said through slightly gritted teeth, out of patience for the floating uncontrollable head and getting the feeling that the rest of the explanation would go like this if she didn't find a way to keep Ponyhead quiet. "And may I please ask you to remain silent until I finish talking so we can get this over with as soon as possible."

"No promises." Ponyhead said. "Depending on how crazy this story is. And based on what I've heard already, it's pretty crazy."

"I'd used the word "tragic", considering how it ends." Eclipsa commented. "But after the speech, Star said goodbye to me and said she and Marco were going to go to the beach together. They left, and apparently while they were there, things took a turn for the worst."

"Let me guess. He got possessed." Ponyhead sighed, not trying at all to keep herself quiet. "This is why I don't trust beaches. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong. It never fails. I remember that my dad talked me into going to a beach once, and you know what happened? My creepy sisters ganged up on me and buried me in the sand. Hell if I know why, but all I know is that it _had _to be planned beforehand. And after I finally dug myself out, I spent _hours _combing all that sand out of my hair. Do you know how hard it is to do that with no arms? I had to use my tongue! It's all gritty and dry and weird! Needless to say, I am never going to another beach again. Shame I wasn't there to tell B-fly why beaches are bad ideas, but I was busy texting all my followers about that speech she made."

"..."

"..."

"Are you finished?" Eclipsa asked.

"Yeah, I'm done." Ponyhead said. "Go on with the story. Sounds like it's getting interesting."

"I suppose you could describe it that way…" Eclipsa lamented. "According to Star, Marco fell asleep and had a few nightmares where he was tortured by this being that then overtook his body. Or at least partially. Star said he likely hadn't been entirely taken over at that time, but he was still...different. His mood changed, he hardly smiled, and he seemed to be another person altogether."

"Why is this part important?" Rich pigeon asked.

"I-!" Eclipsa started. "It was all of you who wanted to know the details. I'm giving them to you. Star actually gave me a much more detailed version, but if we go through that, it'll take up too much time. And most of it is unimportant anyways and has nothing to do with his possession!"

"...Okay, calm down." Rich said, putting his wings up in defense. "It was just something I pointed out."

"Try not to do it again." Eclipsa warned. A small (large) part of her wanted to just skip to the end of all this, but she knew that if she did that then they'd only complain more. And yes. She was technically above them as one half of the Duumvirate. But at a time like this, nobody cared about who was above who. They only cared about who could help who.

"So." She continued. "Marco's mother picked them up later on, and when they got home he and Star had an argument. Marco wanted to go to the magic sanctuary to kill Bren, but Star disagreed."

"Why would he want to go to _that _old place?" Ponyhead asked. "I thought that Sanctuary was nothing but a pile of rubble now. I don't see any reason as to why Bren would be there."

Eclipsa was about to practically yell at Ponyhead, before the Queen realized that she, along with all of the Royals, had no idea about what had become of the magic Sanctuary. What Bren had turned it into. Which admittedly, actually looked much nicer than how it did before. Cleaner. Better artwork. And overall a nice atmosphere.

That was totally irrelevant however, as it was time for yet _another _sidetrack as she had to explain what the magic Sanctuary had been turned into.

"I forgot that none of you are aware of what happened to it since the Merge." She said. "Basically, in the six-month timespan between now and then, Bren repaired the Sanctuary and rebuilt it in his own image. Based on what I saw and heard, I believe he converted it into a place for a god he worships." Eclipsa struggled to resist the urge to say that this god was also the same being that had possessed Marco, as doing so might help the royals connect the dots and assist them in conveying just how interlinked everything was. And anything that'd make the situation easier for them to understand in the long run was of course greatly appreciated.

However, saying that Bren literally had the power of the divine would really lower their hopes of ever winning this fight. So as necessary as it may seem, it'd be pointless if they heard this, surrendered, packed everything up, and fled the town the next morning.

Because that's _exactly _what they'd do.

And yes, it was true, Janna was originally invited to this meeting to explain all of the god stuff, but luckily Eclipsa thought of the consequences before her and let her attend a simple stand-in, something that the Royals didn't understand but also didn't care enough to protest against.

And _double _yes, it was true that the Mayor was aware of this as well, when Eclipsa had mentioned it to him during their earlier phone call. But she had told him not to mention it and he begrudgingly agreed.

But it probably would have been best if she hadn't mentioned that god in the first place, because they picked up on that _real _fast and acted accordingly.

"Worship?" Princess Jaggy half-asked, her face becoming one of fear as she took this in. "Are you saying that he has a god on his side?"

"No, of course not." Eclipsa reassured her, sadly taking note that the princess's reaction was pretty much what she expected from all of them. "Any god-beings like that are all dead. It'd be impossible for any of them to have survived the destruction of the magic realm." Quick, her brain said. Come up with another convincing lie. Fast. "I…" Eclipsa stuttered for a moment before thinking of something that she knew the Royals were gullible enough to fall for. "I...know this _for a fact _because Glossaryck himself told me this just before I and the others erased the dimension from existence." She lied, thanking her lucky stars that neither Moon nor Star (the person this time) was here. And also for the fact that Janna, the only one present besides the Mayor that was aware of this being a fib, was certainly smart enough to catch on to what the Queen was doing. And like clockwork, the Royals accepted it, satisfied with an answer that they liked.

"Oh thank non-existent god." Queen Johansen said. "For a second there I thought we had no chance of ever taking Bren down. Because if he actually had something like that helping him, the power of a being that could erase entire planets with a snap of their fingers, then we'd be completely and utterly helpless."

After she said this, Janna actually laughed at how quickly they had accepted this answer, even if it still hurt slightly to do so. Most everyone gave her an odd look while Eclipsa gave her one that said "don't tell them anything, you literally just heard why doing so is a terrible idea." Janna however didn't even see this glare, but understood nevertheless. She'd keep quiet. At least until it reached a point where keeping it a secret did more harm than good.

"Sorry." She said. "I was thinking of something Ponyhead said earlier."

"Really?!" Ponyhead exclaimed happily, overjoyed at any kind of appreciation. "What was it? Was it me calling Marco Earthturd all those times? All those comments I made after interrupting Eclipsa? Or even earlier than that, when I told everybody that I used the tourist money to fund the Ponyhead show?"

"Uhh...the second one." Janna said, now regarding being unable to contain her laughter. "But speaking of comments, I have one to make of my own. It's something that I've been wondering about for a while, and I'm sure you all have been wondering about for maybe...the past few minutes or so? Yeah, that sounds about right."

"Actually, _I _have something to say first." King Ponyhead said, resulting in Janna looking at him the same way a serial killer might look at a detective trying to catch them. "Why are we only learning about this now, how long have _you _known about it, and how in Mewni did Bren manage to rebuild the entire thing by himself in only six months?"

Eclipsa sighed. "That was a bit more than a comment. And really, you should be asking Star those things." She claimed. "I only heard about this yesterday and this hadn't gotten the chance to tell any of you, as I was busy dealing with...other matters. As for your third question, I have no idea. Again, ask Star. I'm in the dark just as much as the rest of you about the Sanctuary after what I said." She put her hands together and nervously turned her gaze to the broken window. "The information I gave you was everything Star gave _me. _Once she's out of the hospital, which shouldn't be too long from now, I'll have her tell us her reasons."

"How she'd get put in the hospital again?" Penelope asked. "I don't believe you've told us yet."

Eclipsa facepalmed and tugged on a few strands of her hair so hard that she almost ripped it right out of her head. "I was getting to that part of the story, but Ponyhead insisted on knowing what had happened to the Sanctuary, so here we are."

"Don't get angry." Ponyhead told her, rolling her eyes. "It was a good question. And necessary to the plot. At least we know where Bren's base of operations is now. Like, let's gather up the remaining knights and have them tear that place apart out of revenge for what he did to our town!"

This dramatic suggestion was met with several murmurs of agreement by most everybody in the room, excluding Buff Frog, Janna, Globgor, Shawn, and of course, Eclipsa herself. She pressed her fingers against her forehead and wondered why she even bothered at all.

"No! No! No!" She yelled, planning to stop this before it could escalate any further. "That is not happening. What do you all think that'd even accomplish?"

"Like I said. We'd take down his base of operations." Ponyhead said. "Make things harder for him. Make him _angry_ like we are! A bit of payback! A chance to finally get a hit in!"

"And what do you plan to do when he gets mad and _blows up _all your castles like he did with Avarius mansion?" Eclipsa asked. "He burned Mina alive simply for existing and almost destroyed Brudo's entire legacy for whatever reason, so if you destroy his Sanctuary, his _church, _one of the _only _things I'm positive he genuinely cares about, what do you think he'll do to you?"

"...Well, I mean…" Ponyhead said, now seeing the flaw in her plan. "If we're careful, he won't know it was us. He'd just assume it was the knights."

"Yes, but the only people with the authority to order their knights around are...all of us." Eclipsa said, gesturing towards the entire table. "If you demolish the Sanctuary, I have no doubt that he'll have you die in the most painful way possible. Just like those police officers, the Royals knights, and all the civilians who got caught in the blast, we're nothing to him but obstacles. Star is who he's really after, as you all know, so it doesn't matter to him if we live or die, as long as we stay out of his way."

"Then what do you suggest we _do?" _Ponyhead asked. "Ignore this and play it all off as a bad dream? I'm sorry, but that's not happening." She cleared her throat and floated a foot higher. "Think about it. We have the advantage here, as much as it may seem like we don't. We know where his precious little church is. Let's use that against him! Threaten to destroy it if he doesn't do what we say and surrender! It's as easy as that!"

"That's...actually a half-decent idea." Janna said. "But it won't work. Because here's what would happen. Bren doesn't want that place to be damaged, but I bet he doesn't want to lose this fight just as much, if not more. So if we try to tell him what to do, he'll ignore it." She pointed at Ponyhead. "And then when you send soldiers to destroy the Sanctuary as a punishment, he'll get Tom and have him kill us all."

"Oh." Ponyhead said, sinking back down to her chair. "Um...maybe we could-"

"We're not doing anything to the Sanctuary that's final." Eclipsa ordered. "And if I hear that any of you do, then I won't send anybody to your aid when Bren sends Thomas to kill you. Because that will make me a target as well."

"Wow, that's harsh." Ponyhead complained.

"But fair." Janna said. "We shouldn't all have to risk our lives because one of us, and pardon my language, acts like a jackass. Working together is the only way any of us will get ahead now, even if that personally isn't my strong suit."

"Agreed." Eclipsa said, even if Janna had put in in a rather brash way. "So, now that all that has been discussed to my liking, are there any more questions about the Sanctuary?"

Queen Johansen straightened herself up. "Well, I-"

"No? Good." Eclipsa interjected, making sure to ignore this entirely. If they couldn't tell that that had been a rhetorical question, then that was their problem. "Back to the story. _So…" _She seethed. "Marco wanted to go to the Sanctuary to kill Bren, and Star disagreed. It escalated from there to the point where it became physical and they fought. Marco won, and he ran off to attempt to murder Bren."

"Question." Ponyhead said, making Eclipsa bite her lips so hard it drew blood. "How did Earthturd beat Star in a fight like that? She's a princess of Mewni. Trained in all sorts of crazy hand-to-hand combat and sword nonsense. Even without magic, I _know _my bestie still packs one hell of a punch."

"When Marco was possessed, he gained a significant boost in strength, durability, and a few other things." Janna said, sensing that Eclipsa, the only other person than her and the Waterfolk Queen to actually contribute something to this meeting, didn't really have it in her to answer another question. "Star claimed that he literally lifted her entire bed frame above his head and almost crushed her with it. I'll admit, it sounds pretty crazy, even for me."

"Just to be clear…" King Jaggy said. "The Marco boy is _no longer _bewitched by this being, right?"

"No. He's not. And I don't think he's going to be again, based on what my…...personal intuition is telling me." Janna said, managing to catch herself before she mentioned the book and what happened afterwards. "So you don't have to worry about that happening again. _And _before we move forward, I'd like to point out that just like Eclipsa said, Marco is totally innocent. He had no control of his actions while he was beating up Star. So don't go flinging about warrants for his arrest anytime soon."

"I don't even know what that is." Ponyhead said. (She really doesn't.) "But fine. I trust you enough Janna. Earthturd is in the clear for now. But I'm still going to hold this against him for the rest of his days, even if Star tells me not too."

"You hold everything against him." Janna pointed out.

"True." Ponyhead admitted. "But if I didn't do that, then nobody else would be around to remember them."

"Considering the surveillance I'm going to put on Marco after yesterday, I don't think that's needed anymore." Eclipsa said, before attempting to continue the tale. "Now, he nearly put Star into a coma, Marco went to the Sanctuary and apparently tried to kill Bren. He failed, and in turn Bren challenged him to a fight, which he lost. Very, very badly."

"I noticed that you're not really putting that much detail or care into this anymore." Ponyhead complained.

"You can blame yourself and your constant interruptions for that." Eclipsa huffed. "And to be fair, even Star didn't know much about this part of the story, as well as the fact that so much has happened in the past twenty four hours that I'm beginning to forget a few details. So there." She shook her head. "Anyways, while all that was taking place, Angie-"

"Who?" Penelope asked, and something in Eclipsa shattered. A small part of her sanity no doubt. She took a deep breath and was about to leap out of the nearest window she saw to escape this meeting, but Janna saw this coming and spoke up before Eclipsa had the chance to.

"Marco's mom." She said, before looking over at monster Queen, ready to explode with rage at any moment. "Hey, how about you let me handle the rest of the story, okay?"

"Please do." Eclipsa pleaded, her voice shaking. "Because after this I think I'm going to go to one of those rage rooms the humans have and turn it inside out."

"Alright." Janna said nonchalantly, even though she, and everyone else really, had never seen Eclipsa this angry before. And her getting mad to begin with was quite the spectacle, considering the hours and hours of training they all knew she must have gone through as a girl to control her emotions in periods of high stress, such as this one. But unfortunately, none of the Royals were perceptive enough to see that Avarius mansion blowing up wasn't really the thing that was setting her off, but rather, it was them.

So they casually passed Eclipsa's current mental breakdown off. Like most bad happenings that they didn't want to waste their time with. Instead they turned their heads to focus their attention on Janna, and while normally they wouldn't even bother listening to people that weren't part of the council, Janna had already proven herself to be quite the intelligent person (compared to them) during this meeting, so they knew it'd be best to give her a chance. Plus, it beat having to constantly listen to Ponyhead.

Seeing that all eyes were now on her, Janna frantically clears her throat, pressed her hands together, and started the story up again. "Like Eclipsa was saying, Angie, who is Marco's mom, found Star while he was flaunting about the Sanctuary and Star had her call Eclipsa and me to help them with the whole situation."

"Why was Eclipsa with you?" Ponyhead asked. "You two having a girl talk without me? If so, then next time remember to send me an invite. I don't want to miss out on all the gossip that the Queen and the town's most suspicious person must be discussing together. It'd make _great _material for the Ponyhead show."

"Probably." Janna agreed, noting that everything her demon book had to say would most definitely bring in hundreds of thousands of viewers to that show. The confirmation of an actual god existing? Heck, maybe she should do that. Bren might be grateful for all the thousands of people that'd convert overnight after she showed proof of its existence.

Only she had no proof. All they really had was a few loose theories, some medical records of Marco's stay at the hospital, (which was probably illegal for them to nab anyways, although that had never stopped her before), some eyewitness accounts, which was the least reliable source of evidence for anything, and the book itself. Something that was no better than a copy of the Bible, Quran, or any number of religious texts. Some people might believe it, but most people would ignore it, _especially _if it was broadcasted on Ponyhead's show, which Janna was sure didn't have the best track record for anything.

And it was a stupid plan anyways. Bren didn't want more people in his religion. He just wanted them all to die. Simple as that.

"But we weren't having a "girl talk". Janna said, air quoting. "We were actually talking about some pretty important stuff."

"Oh? What?" Ponyhead asked. "Actually, nevermind. Calling it now. You two were talking about how you can use my show to promote Earthni to bring in more of that sparkly Earth money to help fix the town. And before you say "wow Ponyhead, that's right, you're so smart and the greatest friend ever to Star, who is _way _too good for Earthturd," let _me _say, I know. No need to bow down. So all of you can stop clapping. I get enough of that on the street."

"..."

"What?"

"...Nothing." Janna said, who was briefly appalled/impressed by the flying head's insane levels of arrogance and self-admiration. Even _she _had been briefly shocked to silence by that one. The fact that Ponyhead believed everything she told herself was an ability that Janna knew no living person should have, but also one that she personally coveted quite a bit. For starters, it'd make lying a whole lot easier.

"It's just...nobody was clapping." She continued, taking off her beanie and shaking away the spittle Ponyhead got on it like it was diseased. "And that's not what I was about to say."

"Pft. Your loss." Ponyhead scoffed. "If you're going to treat me like this, then I'll just leave."

"Really?" Half the room exclaimed excitedly, their faces trembling with excitement.

The living embodiment of annoyance in Earthni then took a quick look around the room, eyeing each and every person. Only to then burst out laughing, banging her forehead against the table and making giant holes in the process.

"You should have seen the look on your faces!" She said. "I can't wait to show that to my followers. Also, don't think you can get rid of me _that _easily. I'm staying until the very end of this thing. And I know that we still have a ton of stuff to discuss, so don't get your hopes up anytime soon."

Everyone glared at her.

"Oh, don't give me all that." She said, reading their expressions like a piece of paper. "You should really expect it from me by this point."

They really should have. But that didn't get rid of any of the contempt. Someone was about to start yelling at her, until Janna's voice cut through the silence and prevented a full blow argument about why Ponyhead deserved just as much a punishment as Bren for her crimes against Mewmanity. And humanity. And whatever the hell the word for monster-kind was.

"I'm going to keep telling the story before this escalates into a brawl." She said a matter-of-factly. "So, Angie called Eclipsa and told us to come over and help them because Marco had gone crazy, and they needed my help to hypnotize him."

Ponyhead arched an eyebrow. "You can-"

"Yes, I can do that." Janna said. "And before you ask, no, I probably can't do anything more than making Marco faint. It won't be any use against Bren, considering the mental problems that that guy must have."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ponyhead asked. "And by the way, I wasn't going to ask if you could take down Bren. I was wondering if you could take my sisters down and get me a day off from having to deal with them."

"Are they mentally ill?" Janna asked, happy for a

chance to see if her hypnosis skills worked on someone else.

"Hmm...probably have every disease in the book." Ponyhead said, before frowning. "Dang. I guess that means it won't work on them, right?"

"No." Janna said, even though she was sure that her sisters were fine mentally and Ponyhead just hated them. "And going back to your earlier question about Bren, it won't work on someone who can make themselves immune to that kind of stuff, and after what Star told me about him, with his apparent mental breakdowns and the way he can phase out of them, I think it's safe to say that I won't be able to do anything."

"Mental breakdown?" Ponyhead said, before remembering what Janna was referencing. "Ohhh, you mean that thing he did when he crashed our last meeting. When Star asked him if he knew what he was doing this for or something, and he started acting all crazy."

"Pretty much." Janna admitted. "But it was mostly the way he calmed himself down. He looked like he was about to collapse to the floor back then, but unfortunately, he snapped himself out of it like _that." _She snapped her fingers for emphasis. "So if Bren's able to break out of whatever that was, which looked pretty severe, I think it's safe to say that my hypnosis wouldn't do anything."

"Hmm, that's disappointing." Ponyhead said. "I was hoping that you guys could come up with a non-conventional way of beating him, something that'd make all of this a lot more interesting." She sighed. "Guess you just wanna stick to the classics, huh?"

"Not out of choice." Janna said, briefly tapping her fingers against the table before speaking again. "Okay. So Angie called us and me and Eclipsa piled in her smart car to get to the Sanctuary, probably breaking about fifty traffic laws in the way here."

"Oh, that was your doing?" The Mayor interjected. "Because most of the calls to the police yesterday before the explosion were about some person driving like a lunatic and putting everyone in danger."

"Sounds about right." Janna chuckled. "But is that really important right now?"

"Not particularly, but because you almost ran over at least twenty people, I think it's at least somewhat worthy of note…" The Mayor commented. He glanced over at Eclipsa, who was currently eating a Snookers bar as a form of food therapy. Even if she herself wasn't being interrupted, the others constantly barging in on Janna's explanation gave her a mild flashback that imbued in her such a great rage that she had to stuff her face with something tasty, lest she lose control and go full tyrant. "Please don't do that again." He pleaded. "The last thing we want is for us to start endangering the lives of the citizens."

"I mean, it's a bit late for that." Ponyhead noted. "But yeah, be careful Eclipsa. Imagine if you actually hit someone with your car. Then we'd probably have to kick you off the Council or something…"

Eclipsa glared at the two of them before she took another bite out of her candy bar, her only response to their berating being a loud _CRUNCH._

"If we're all done complaining about something that really doesn't matter in the current situation, considering how many people just died, I think it's best if I get back to the summary." Janna muttered, slightly peeved that Eclipsa was being ganged-up on like this. Did _they _have to drive that fast because they knew someone's life was at stake yesterday? And then drive that life to the hospital only to discover that they were too late, all while knowing that there were still giant blood stains inside their car that would have to be cleaned later?

That is, if their car wasn't destroyed by a giant flying rock a few hours later. Did they go through _that _as well?

No. They didn't do any of it. They didn't get to complain. Eclipsa's anger towards them was completely justified. And that didn't even being to cover the stuff Janna _hadn't _been there for, like Marco freaking out in her driveway (which she heard but passed off because she was a hairbreadth away from getting the front desk receptionist at the hospital fired with some "suspicious complaints"), Rafael returning home and causing Angie to faint, being forced to tell Rafael that his son had been killed causing _him _to faint, and then waiting, calling the mayor, having to explain more things that she really shouldn't have had to, and _finally, _after all that, staying up all night and working damage control along with the mayor while the town descended into darkness and fell apart at the seams.

Much like Marco, she had had a pretty bad day. Marco's was still worse by a wide margin, but her's was _definitely _up there. Star's as well. But Janna supposed that after the whole Marco incident, it became a bad day for everyone. She wondered if a single damn person in all of Earthni had been truly happy since the blast.

And the answer, in all it's horrible, bothersome, painful truthful glory, was no. So many lives had been taken that there wasn't a single person left in town who hadn't lost a friend, a family member, or a lover by the time it was over. Except, of course, the one who had caused it. Bren. That disgusting, loathsome, detestable, worthless little piece of shi-

'Stop.' Janna thought. 'Pull yourself together. This isn't like you. Don't let _any _of it get to you. You have to be strong here. Look around. These guys have no idea what's going on. They didn't see what we saw. They stayed in their castles all day yesterday, even after the Mansion blew up, so they're clueless of the suffering the people down below went through. And Bren…'

Janna's face briefly twisted into one of slight contempt, an extremely rare sight for someone like her. 'Are you really going to let him get to you? All because he has Tom? Stop worrying. Tom will be fine. In fact, that whole part of this will be sorted out soon. Eclipsa told me that Zudo might know what happened to the Lucitors. Once we figure that out, we can rescue them and break Bren's hold on him. Then he'll tear him apart, piece by piece, layer by layer, until he gets to his rotten core and burns it to a crisp. Bren may be strong enough to take on Marco, but Tom's a match for anyone when he goes full demon. Well, at least, now that nobody has magic spells anymore. Just rituals and stuff like I use.'

She bit her lip and took a deep breath. 'Just...calm down...and be yourself.'

"Well?" A sudden voice said, ruining Janna's attempt to calm herself in less than a second. She didn't even have to ask who it belonged to. "Are you going to tell us the rest of the story or not? You've been sitting there for like five minutes just staring at your fingers. Kinda creepy, if I'm being honest."

"Sorry." Janna said. "I was just thinking about something. It's not important."

"That's the second time that's happened, and I'm pretty sure it's been about the same thing both times." Ponyhead deduced. "Is it about your little demon boyfriend?"

"I'm sorry, my _what?"_ Janna asked, painfully standing up and pushing her chair back, hoping for everyone's sake that she had heard the flying unicorn head incorrectly.

"I'm talking about Tom!" Ponyhead exclaimed. "Because he's serving Bren as his own little bodyguard, it's probably really hard for you considering your relationship together."

"Relationship?!" Janna practically yelled, yet another rare thing for her to do. After this, she would swear to never go to another meeting again, as she saw that these things really pushed her, and everyone else, to their limits. She finally understood what Globgor was talking about when he said she really shouldn't go to anymore of them. "We _don't _have any kind of relationship together Ponyhead. We've hung out a couple times. That's all. It's not like he's my…" She shuddered. "..._boyfriend _or anything."

"Oh, I beg to differ." Ponyhead rebuffed, while the other Royals wondered how long this was going to go on for. "See, I saw him give you that big book as a birthday present or something. And before you ask how, it's because I was following him to see what he could possibly be doing with such a gift, and what a surprise, he went to your house! I didn't stick around after that, but I think it's pretty obvious what that big ole' tome was for."

"Hold on, you _spied _on him? Without me knowing about it?" Janna asked, her angry look now replaced with a more addled one. "That's actually kind of impressive, considering that spying on other people is my thing and…...hold on, does this have anything to do with why camera #315 suddenly cut out one day?"

"Maybe." Ponyhead acknowledged. "I did see this little black flashing thing on one of his horns, so I swooped down, took it in my mouth, then flew off so fast that he didn't even know it was me."

"Why'd you do it like that?" Zudo asked, who frankly was starting to enjoy the show.

"I saw some Earth videos of hawks and other weird birds doing that to prey." Ponyhead explained. "So I was practicing my moves for the inevitable day when I dive-bomb Earthturd with my horn after he breaks Star's heart."

"Don't count on _that _happening any time soon." Eclipsa chimed in, who was now in a slightly better mood after her Snookers feast, and for the fact that she no longer had to participate if she didn't want to. "When we left the hospital, their relationship hadn't changed at all." She paused. "And if you spear Marco on your horn, I can tell you with certainty that Star will rip it off and stab _you _with it, regardless of any friendship you had with her before."

"I said only when he breaks her heart, which I'm _sure _is going to happen eventually!" Ponyhead said. "And I know my bestie is not one to forgive and forget!"

"Uh, she totally is." Janna insisted. "Buff Frog, Ludo, Meteora, _all _of monsterkind. She considered all of them enemies at one point and now none of them are. If Marco breaks up with her, they'll still be good friends."

"Wanna bet?" Ponyhead said. "How about this. By the end of this whole thing, we'll see which one of us knows Star better. If those two are broken up, and it's Marco's fault, then I win. But if they're not, then you win."

"I see." Janna said, smiling as she was never one to back down from a bet like this. "And what do I win if I...win?"

"In that unlikely and unfortunate event, you get to announce on the Ponyhead show, _live, _that I was wrong, and you were right." Ponyhead declared. She then floated over to Janna, wearing the most cheeky expression that anyone had the discomfort of witnessing, along with an equally disturbing shit-eating grin that should not have been possible for a unicorn. (Or any other creature really.)

"But if I win…" She said. "Then _you_ have to appear on the show, and tell the whoooooooolllleee world that Tom is your boyfriend, and that you plan to get married to him one day."

Janna thought about it for a split second before nodding her head. "I agree to your terms." She said, sticking her hand out, grabbing Ponyhead's horn, and shaking it up and down. "But just so you know, like we were saying earlier, Marco literally put Star in the hospital, and she still loves him, so I think it's clear who had the advantage here."

"Only because he was possessed." Ponyhead recalled, floating backwards to her seat. "But fine. Believe your little lies. When this is all over, you'll have to confess, and I for one can't wait to watch."

"So...do you hate me now then?" Janna asked, puzzled as to why Ponyhead was so adamant about this. "Because it's starting to feel like that."

"No, I just want to see the drama." Ponyhead revealed. "That and Tom's reaction. Once I get a new _phone_..." The last word was spoken with a tone of obvious disdain. "I can record the whole thing and watch it every night. That or I can charge people to watch it. Make more money for the Ponyhead show."

"Actually…" Eclipsa blurted out. "I'm calling the tv station after this meeting and having your show canceled." She said, speaking in the most deadpan tone anyone had heard her use. "So there won't be any of that."

"...Hehe...what?" Ponyhead asked, unsure if she had heard the Queen correctly. "What did you just say?"

"By the end of the day, your show will be off the air and no one will ever watch it again." Eclipsa emphasized. "Don't bother trying to talk me out of it, because my decision is final."

"Wha-! You-!" Ponyhead stuttered, unable to find the right thing to say. "But WHY?! What do you care about my show? It never did anything to you! You were _on _it once, remember?"

"And I had horrible ratings, and I think that counts as "doing something."" Eclipsa reminded her. "But it's not that. You have wasted enough time in this meeting by opening your mouth, and several times it's been because of that show. I'm not going to let this continue when all of Earthni is in disarray."

Ponyhead just stared at Eclipsa, mouth wide open, while all the Royals had their mouths open as well, although they were wearing "is this really happening" grins along with it.

"But the _real _reason is because you wasted our money on it." Eclipsa said. "Don't think we forgot about how you had your sisters steal all the cash we made off of tourism to fund that show. I think it's time I return the favor for stealing all that money by stealing your show away from you."

"..."

"..."

"NO!" Ponyhead shrieked, now crying rainbow tears that streamed down her face like a river and splattered onto the floor. "NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! THIS SHOW IS ALL I HAVE IN THIS SHITTY TOWN BESIDES STAR! AND NOW SHE'S IN THE HOSPITAL BECAUSE OF EARTHTURD! I'M NOTHING WITHOUT IT! DON'T YOU DARE-"

"My decision is final." Eclipsa repeated, almost grinning. "My authority is much higher than yours, so don't waste your time in trying to stop this."

"LIKE HELL! I'M NOT LETTING THIS SHOW DIE! PREPARE TO FACE THE FULL WRATH OF PONYHEAD!"

And with that, Ponyhead flew out of the room at a speed best comparable to Mach 3, bawling and screaming all the way. Her yells could still be heard even when she was out of the building and on the sidewalk, until they finally faded into the distance.

Everyone sat silently and waited for Eclipsa to speak again, most of them wishing they had brought a camera.

"Well then." She said. "Now that she's gone, Janna, would you like to continue the story?"

"Yup." Janna said, holding back her laughter along with the rest of the Royals and Zudo. Even Buff Frog, who had been unusually quiet and stoic, was noticeably amused by this display. "Okay, where was I again? I lost my train of thought after all...that."

"You were talking about how you broke every traffic law in the book on your way to the Sanctuary." The Mayor said, the one person who was displeased with how slow this was all going. (Everyone else was too busy trying to laugh after the Ponyhead incident, even Eclipsa.)

"Oh yeah. Fun times." Janna reminisced. "But whatever. We made it there, found it empty, and we used the tracking device I had placed on Marco at an earlier date to find him."

"Uh, sorry to be a Ponyhead here…" Zudo interjected. "But if you had a tracking device on him the whole time, why didn't you use that in the first place?"

"It slipped my mind." Janna confessed. "There was a lot going on at that time, so I forgot that it existed. Plus, I have so many tracking devices and cameras on so many different people that it created a sort of brain vortex in which none of them existed in my memories until the right moment."

"Doesn't make any sense, but okay…" Zudo mumbled. "And...uh, how many people in town do you have tracking devices and cameras on?"

"Hmmm…" Janna hummed, bringing her hand to her chin before shrugging. "Not sure."

"Can't remember?"

"Having trouble counting that high."

"..."

"..."

"Oh, that's comforting…" King Jaggy muttered sarcastically, a statement which all of the other Royals agreed upon.

"Hold on a second!" Eclipsa said, jumping to her feet. "Janna, do you have one on To-"

"Ponyhead destroyed it, remember? Camera 315. And that was one of the better ones. Took me forever to save enough money to get them all at Questbuy. If there's any drawback to magic being destroyed, it's that I can't get there anymore…"

"Ah. Right. Her." Eclipsa groaned, sitting back down and ignoring Janna's comment about Questbuy.

"Wonder what she'll do to screw us over next."

"Whatever it is, she's probably already done it." Janna sighed. "But there is something else that I discovered with all the cameras that seemed odd. See, I put one on his carriage too, that big thing that's pulled by that flaming unicorn skeleton, and approximately five months ago, it stopped broadcasting. One month after the merge and 3 days before I saw Tom again. And that was when he started acting...weird."

Eclipsa raised an eyebrow at this new information. "Weird how?" She asked.

"He seemed worried about something. Like, all the time." Janna said. "And I could tell because of how he was constantly sweating. And demons usually don't sweat unless they're nervous or lying about something. Because no demon is going to sweat over any amount of heat, they live in hell."

"Five months ago…" Eclipsa mumbled. "That must have been when Bren got to him. We didn't even…" She put her hand to her chin and held it there. "Although it's odd, I thought he only disappeared after he took that vacation a well or so ago. He left, and when he came, he was Bren's servant."

"I'm betting that's what Bren wanted us to think." Janna said. "Because if he's had Tom this whole time and made him act like everything's fine, then who _knows _what he had him do. Maybe that's how he got some of his information. Tom could have just hung out with us and reported back with whatever he learned. And when it was time for Bren to finally enact his plan, Tom just became us personal bodyguard and teleporter."

"Dammit…" Eclipsa swore, the implications of this meaning that Bren knew even _more _than initially thought, something that'd no doubt cause them to underestimate him later. She took a few deep breaths to soothe herself, to some effect. "But what were you saying earlier about the cameras?" She asked. "That another one of them stopped broadcasting?"

Janna nodded. "Mmhm. Only this one wasn't like 315, which suddenly went dark and then stopped broadcasting a few minutes later. I assume that was Ponyhead grabbing it off Tom and then covering up with something. But the one I put the carriage cut out _instantly _like someone destroyed it entirely."

"Do you think it simply fell off and then someone stepped on it?" King Waterfolk asked, deeply wanting for the whole "Tom has been Bren's servant for months and had heard everything single thing said during these meetings" theory to not be true. "We should consider all the possibilities. I know it may seem like a silly thing to say right now, but sometimes things aren't _always _as bad as we imagine them to be."

"I wish I could say the same." Janna disagreed. "But those cameras were bought as Questbuy, like I said, and they were top of the line. They wouldn't have simply fallen off, and stepping on the damn things might leave a scratch or two, but that's it. It takes a lot to damage them. Someone had to have found it and destroyed it deliberately. And I was pondering over this for a long time, because I hid it in a pretty damn good place…"

"Why are we only learning about this now?" Penelope asked.

"Because I knew what it meant, and I didn't want to believe it." Janna said. "Back then, it meant that something was happening in the Underworld. But I didn't know what. A demon war? Rebellion maybe?

Some stupid kid finding it by accident and taking it apart with a ritual?" She shrugged again. "Who knows. Any of those things could have been the answer. But the one with the kid...something told me that it couldn't have been that easy an explanation."

"Do you think Bren found it then?" Princess Waterfolk asked, ceasing playing with her seaweed hair for the first time since the meeting began. "And then trashed it?"

"...No." Janna said, shaking her head. "Someone definitely found it and crushed it, but it wasn't Bren."

"How can you be so-"

"Because if _he _had been the one to find it, then he would have known I put it there." Janna then leaned forward and placed her partially casted arms on the table, giving all of them an expression of great awareness. "Let's assume a few things here. First, that Bren has been in control of Tom, the Lucitors, _and _the Underworld for much longer than we thought. Two, he's had Tom pretend everything is fine and report back to what he heard during these meetings. Three, when he crashed the last meeting and said he hid wiretaps or whatever in places we couldn't reach, that that was a lie. He never needed wiretaps. He already had his personal slave to tell him what happened."

"Hold on, then what about the meeting _before _that meeting?" King Ponyhead asked. "Lucitor wasn't there, and assuming that he never had wiretaps, wouldn't he have been cut off from that one?"

"Yeah, but did you really talk about anything important during _that _meeting? I don't think it lasted that long." Janna pointed out.

"We...we didn't." King Ponyhead admitted. "We all wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, as was the process."

"Made up process…" Eclipsa mumbled.

"Exactly." Janna crowed. "And besides, I'm betting he already had everything he needed at that point. That's why he had Tom take that vacation. He needed an excuse to make us think that he nabbed him during that and not months ago." She exhaled dramatically and angled her face towards the table. "What kind of shit did you talk about?"

"Excuse me?" Queen Jaggy asked.

"What did you talk about during these stupid things?" Janna repeated. "Now, I didn't expect you to go through them all or even give me an abridged version, but was there anything _particularly _important that would've given Bren an advantage over you? And I mean an even _greater _one than what he has now."

Queen Jaggy's brow furrowed and she put her hands together. "Well...several times we brought out maps of the town and showed where we were going to build new structures, both public, and private."

Janna waved this off. "Something else." She ordered. "I don't think he'd care about new buildings that much." However, she then paused and seemed to regret this statement. "Unless...of course…...how many have been built?"

"Four dozen." Buff Frog chimed in. "One practically on every corner now."

"Tch..." Janna groaned, sounding annoyed by this information. "Okay, now did any have secret passageways? Closets? Hard to find spaces? That kind of stuff?"

"Most of them have panic rooms or sealed off rooms that'd be used in case of an emergency situation." Globgor blurted out. "They're pretty big, but I doubt anyone has actually been in them since the construction was finished. They're pretty well hidden…"

"Open them up. All of them." Janna ordered, putting on a serious tone and sounding scarier than any of the other people in the room. "Look inside and make sure there's nothing in there. None of those barrels or any other explosives. If he's broken in, packed them full of C4 or TNT or whatever, and sets them off all at once, that'll be it." She took a deep breath. "One on every street corner, right? Yeah, the town's not going to come back from damage that bad. The Mansion Avarius explosion was only _one _blast, and look how bad it's already getting out there. If he sets off four dozen of those things at once…...bye bye Earthni."

"It's...odd, to see you talking like this." Eclipsa said. "I didn't expect you to get this involved with the meeting."

"Didn't really plan on it, but this is my town too." Janna conveyed. "I'd rather not see it, my parents, and all my friends turned to ash. It was bad enough when Marco was killed. That's when I realized I should really get involved with this, even if I didn't show it at the time."

"Weren't you the centerpiece of the plan that vanquished the giant demon?" Rich pigeon asked. "Does that not count as getting involved?"

"There was nobody else who could have saved the day, and I wasn't about to ignore an opportunity to get out of that hospital bed. Even if Bren was the one who did it." Janna explained . "But here, I could just go home and pretend it's all a bad dream, but I'm not. I don't want to watch any more people die because of this. Even though…" Her eyes darted to the ceiling. "I feel like a lot more are going to before we beat him."

None of them said it, but all of the Royals agreed with this. After yesterday, it was clear that whatever came next was not going to be easy, and Bren obviously wasn't the kind of person who strayed away from killing random civilians. His kill count on that side of the spectrum was rising at an unexpected rate.

"I don't get it." Rich said, throwing his wings in the air. "Why doesn't he just kill us all and get it over with? Seems easier than dragging this on and making it harder for himself."

"Because dragging it out is what he wants to do." Janna said. "He's a stereotypical bad guy in a lot of ways. And one of those ways is that he likes to savor victory. So that's what he's doing. He's enjoying watching us all suffer and squabble over this. And I actually respect the fact that he's managed to take to it this far, as well as his level of patience."

"I don't consider waiting six months to murder an entire town is patient." Eclipsa said. "Give it a year or two. But you have a point." She turned towards the Royals. "This is what he wants. For us to fight against him and fail. For us to fight amongst each other and accomplish nothing. And for us to fight the townsfolk when they turn on us."

"When?" Queen Spiderbite asked fearfully. "Not "if" they turn against us?"

"It's going to be a "when" if we don't sort things out." Eclipsa insisted. "We...are running out of time. Janna, finish your explanation, and nobody interrupt again for any reason, or we're telling the townsfolk that it's _your_ fault this all happened."

The Royals all collectively flinched at this announcement, none of them liking the ideas that had been put into their heads because of it. It was quite a dirty tactic for Eclipsa to say something like after. Literally. The mess that'd be left afterwards of whatever unfortunate Royal who got blamed for the whole thing might take a while to clean up. But it was like she had said. Time was short. The fact that the building wasn't being stormed as of right now was morning short of a miracle, was probably only because the townsfolk were too injured and busy with other things to do it.

"Got it." Janna answered. "Alright…" She sighed. "We all hopped back in Eclipsa's car and sped over to where my tracking device said Marco was. The first thing we saw was Marco on the ground and Bren looming over him with bloodied fists, so naturally Star had Eclipsa ram into him and it sent him flying into a nearby tree. We jumped out, grabbed Marco, and left before Bren could catch us. Well...at least, catch _all _of us. He still managed to rip the back bumper off."

Janna briefly paused her story to take a look around the room, and she saw the insane levels of restraint in the Royal's faces as they fought the urge to not open their mouths to ask more questions. Probably something about where the fight took place or how Bren tanked being hit with a car and then thrown into a tree (something that Janna has already explained when she mentioned it earlier that Marco had gained super-strength and several other abilities while he was possessed, therefore making it abundantly clear that nobody here had retained that knowledge and or connected the dots). Janna didn't mind. She'd just ask Eclipsa or whoever to send it all in an email later, considering that the whole debacle with them being scammed last meeting confirmed that they had computers and a stable internet connection.

"After that, we drove to the hospital, and Star practically threw Marco into the nearest doctors arms." Janna continued, before checking her watch and deciding that there was no way she was going to explain this next part in detail. "Long story short, they can't bring him back, Star goes berserk, Marco is resurrected through some weird means that me and Eclipsa have been...theorizing on, and that's basically the end of that story."

"..."

"Are you serious?" Rich asked. "Surely there's more to it than that."

"There's a bit more, but nothing important." Janna informed him. "Most of what happened next is us driving home and me attempting to get the front desk attendant at the hospital fired because they were totally incompetent at their job. They acted like me at that desk. And I wouldn't want me working for me."

"Quite." Eclipsa agreed. "Now, shall we get back to what we were discussing before that story? Zudo? I believe you were talking about how you were going to tell us everything you knew?"

Everyone looked over to Zudo's seat, fully expecting the boy to speak up again and start spouting every secret he knew like there was no tomorrow. (And in their eyes, there was no tomorrow for him.) After all, he believed this himself. It was one of the reasons he was telling them everything. Because there was really no point in Zudo keeping it to himself if he was going to die for it no matter what…

...

...Only to see an empty seat, the chair neatly pushed in with no sign of Zudo anywhere. His stuffed toy lay vacant on the floor, with a burst seam coming out of its side. The room instinctively froze up as they all realized his sudden vacancy, like he had vanished out of thin air or been teleported. Even the gaggle of guards lining the walls looked surprised, surprised that they hadn't seen him leave either.

"Where...is...he…?" King Ponyhead asked slowly, saying one word a second.

"I-I don't know." Eclipsa said. "He was...he should...did anyone see him leave?"

A collective murmur of "no's" and "I didn't" rang throughout the room, and Eclipsa now knew that they were all as ignorant as her. This...this wasn't right. He couldn't have just left like that. She turned towards the guards.

"Search for him!" She ordered. "Check everywhere! We can't let him leave no matter what!"

The guards all nodded and filed out of the room in a straight line, with about six of them staying behind for necessary protection. Then they started hunting for the boy, checking under the table, on the ceiling, in King Ponyhead's hair, _anywhere _that could be used as a potential hiding place. They didn't find him, as Eclipsa expected. Wherever Zudo had disappeared too, it had to be far, far, away from her. Even Janna was perplexed by his vanishing, something that made Eclipsa even _more _uneasy. Because if Janna hadn't seen it, then what chance did any of them have?

"Wasn't anyone keeping an eye on him?!" She asked them, although it was also directed at herself. "There...there is _no _way he should have been able to-"

"Calm down." Janna said, knowing that things were going to go bad if she didn't do something. "Don't...freak out. Okay Eclipsa?"

"I'm having a hard time not doing that." The Queen said. "First off, Zudo, who had information that we _desperately _needed to know, had vanished into thin air, _just _as I asked him if he could tell us said information! I don't if you see that as a coincidence, but I don't. Second, this meeting is still far from over, so even if we don't find him, there is still an astronomical amount of things left to discuss, and I don't know if my heart can take it. And third, once again we have run into another problem that will waste time and make everything worse. So I'm sorry Janna, but I don't think I have it in me to remain that calm."

Janna blinked at Eclipsa, thoroughly disturbed by how out of character she was acting.

"When was the last time you were asleep?" She asked.

"What?"

"_Sleep." _Janna repeated. "How long has it been since your last nap? Because your eyes look pretty bloodshot if I'm being honest, and along with the bags under them, I think it's pretty obvious that you haven't rested up in a while. So how long has it been?"

"...Approximately 48 hours." Eclipsa admitted. I didn't get any sleep last night, as well as the night before that, because Meteora was crying about something throughout all of it. It...it's been a while."

"Yeah. Okay." Janna said, before turning to Globgor. "Take her home man. And make sure she gets all the rest she needs."

"What!" Eclipsa exclaimed. "I don't need any rest. I'm perfectly fine!"

"Not really." Janna countered. "You've been acting kind of erratic. First there was that suggestion that we ruthlessly kill anybody that might be working with Bren, then when you started getting all pissy at Ponyhead, _which you were terrible at hiding I might add, _and now this. Eclipsa. For your sake, and everyone's else, go home and get some sleep. You frankly deserve it after the last day and a half."

"But...I can't." Eclipsa protested. "The town...I have to take care of the people. We have figure out where Zudo is and what to-"

"The Mayor and everyone else here can take care of that." Janna reminded her. "We got this."

"Wait." The Mayor said. "Are you saying that I have to-"

"Shut up." Janna snapped at him, before bringing her focus back to the sleep-deprived Queen. "Alright?"

"...Alright." Eclipsa said, finally consenting to Janna's suggestion. She got up and stumbled out of the room, and Globgor was right behind her, making sure his wife didn't flop to the floor and slip into unconsciousness right then and there. The rest of the Royals watched her go with envy, but for once understood that Eclipsa really needed this as they all reflected on how much she must have gone through in those two days.

(Enjoy it while it lasts)

Without saying a word, Janna then got up from her seat and plopped herself down in Eclipsa's before addressing the entire table.

"Okay." She said. "Let's figure this out so you can all get the hell out of here and do your damn jobs."

"Who put _you _in charge?" Rich asked.

"Would you rather it be you making decisions like this?"

Rich shrunk back at this question like she was holding a knife dangerously close to his head. "...No."

"That's what I thought." Janna shrugged. "And I assume that it's the same for the rest of you, so I'll be taking control until the end of the meeting, considering that I have no doubt been the person here who's done the most work."

"_Ahem." _A sudden voice coughed, and Janna looked to the far side of the room to see Shawn glaring at her, holding up his blistered and twisted fingers, a byproduct of the countless pages of words he had just typed.

"Sorry. I meant the person who's done the most work _except _for Shawn." Janna apologized. "But are there any more complaints?"

"..."

"Good." Janna beamed, smirking and placing both of her cast-covered hands on the table. She ignored the confusion-filled look that the Mayor, clearly annoyed that she had appointed herself de-facto leader in Eclipsa's absence. But he didn't care either. Like the others, he was simply glad that someone else offered to take charge, someone that had already proven themselves to be more capable than most throughout the meeting.

"Let's forget about Zudo for now." Janna said harshly. "If he ran away, the guards will catch him. He won't get far. If Bren somehow got to him, then it's not our problem anymore. Nothing we can do about that. But that doesn't matter right now. Because I already figured out what Bren has, the thing that's keeping Tom obedient."

"And that is?" Queen Jaggy asked.

"His parents, duh." Janna said in a monotone voice. "What the hell else would it be? Honestly, I'm shocked it took us this long to figure it out. If Bren's not using Tom's parents for anything against us, then he had to be using them against Tom as leverage. Nothing else to it really."

"So...should we organize a force to rescue them or something?" Penelope asked. "Where are they being kept?"

"The Underworld." Janna said confidently. "I presume Bren has the whole Kingdom under his control. BUT...we can discuss all that later. For now, let's talk about how we keep the townsfolk from ripping us into pieces."

"We don't have the money, the manpower, or anything else like that." The King of the Waterfolk informed her.

"Not without aid from outside resources, which we won't get considering Bren had gotten to them as well."

"That's only a working theory." Janna reminded him. "We have no _real _evidence besides our own assumptions. We didn't think to ask for outside help after the demon attack, and besides, it's only been a few days since that anyways. So we may get help, or we might not. If we don't, Bren's infiltrated the government. If we _do, _everyone gets to breathe a sigh of relief. The cavalry has arrived! We'll finally get help and maybe have a chance. But whichever one it is, we should prepare for the option that they're no longer on our side."

"Then what do we do?" The Waterfolk King asked.

"Simple." Janna said. "We do what we did with the demon attack. Scrounge up whatever money we have and rebuild, bury the dead, and move on. There's really nothing else we can do. And before you say that all the money went towards repairs for the demon attack, don't worry. I'll get us a _lot _more."

"How are you going to do that?"

"I know every dark corner of the internet and of this town." Janna announced. "Trust me, I can make us more money in an day than most people in Earthni have seen in a lifetime. I haven't yet simply because I didn't want to be rich. Keeping a low profile, you know?"

"Sure…" King Ponyhead said. "Then you do that. But even so, how we keep the-"

"We make a promise." Janna said. "We tell them Bren's did this. We tell them that he is behind everything, and that he has been planning this for months without our knowledge thus it was beyond our control. But the promise...we say that we will find, catch him, and have him publicly executed in the town square. They want blood? We'll give them blood. They can soak that stuff up with their handkerchiefs and hang it on their walls once it's all over. But they'll be happy as long as he dies and they get to witness it firsthand."

"Do Earth laws even allow that? Or even allow you to make money on the internet that way?"

"Who cares about the law?" Janna asked no one in particular. "It's basically kill or be killed now. And if the government truly is on _his _side, then why bother following any laws at all? I never cared in the first place, and neither should any of you."

"Alright...assuming this _all _works…" Queen Johansen started. "Assuming you get the money we need, convince the townsfolk not to tear our heads off, _and _make a plan to rescue the Lucitors...how do we catch Bren himself?"

"Once we get the Lucitors, Tom will be free. After that, it's no contest. Without his teleporter, Bren's nothing. We'll just chase him around, put a couple of bullets in his legs, and that's the end of that."

"So that's it then?" Rich asked. "We have a plan now? This is what we do?"

Janna smiled and nodded, but once again struggled to not mention the fire god. Odds were that that thing wasn't going to let it be this easy. She had to find some way to outwit the god without telling the others. Unless, of course, this was all part of its plan. Even with all her occult knowledge and wealth, Janna didn't understand the motivations of the truly divine any better than the next person. Who knew what it was thinking right now.

She shook these thoughts off. That was something to think about later. Even though something _else _itches at her mind as well. A secondary motive behind all this…...the truth of the Bren's home dimension...the "last of the parallels." A concept that Janna didn't comprehend. But she'd find out. Saving the Lucitors would require so much more than just going to the Underworld and staging a raid on it. She wanted to hit Bren personally and where it hurt. And while it wasn't like her to hold a grudge, she could make an exception this time. And where better to start than with the very thing that made him do this in the first place?

"That's the plan." Janna said. "Are there any problems with it?"

Nobody spoke, as nobody could come up with a better one.

"Perfect." Janna said. "Now…

let's figure out a way to properly invade the Underworld."

**End chapter 20**

**A/N: Well. I'm going to admit, I had fun writing this chapter, especially the Ponyhead parts. Poor Eclipsa. She's going to be taking a break for a while as all this settles down. The next chapter will focus on a few things. Moon and River's visit with Star in the hospital, a look at the whole situation from some of the minor characters, and Ponyhead's frantic attempts to get her show un-canceled. (Spoilers: It won't work.)**

**But Janna is now in control of the council and finally stepping up to stop Bren's bullshit. Kinda started realizing that after the giant demon, but it only kicked in once Marco died. Showed that this wasn't going to stop unless she actually helped out. As for a few others questions asked during this chapter, some of those will be answered in following ones, like if Bren really has the government under his boot heel (even if he doesn't wear boots), what the hell the Lucitors are up to as prisoners, and where Zudo disappeared off to. He's still alive, don't worry. Even if it seems like I literally and figuratively threw him out of the story.**

**Until next time.**


	22. Chapter 21: Code Grey

**Aflame**

**Chapter 21**

**Code Grey**

Hidden from view, hidden from sight, and remarkably hard to find, there lay a place in Earthni whose location was only known to a special few. This, as most things were, was no accident. That special place was a house. Small, cozy, and the two residents that lived there preferred to live in permanent peace and quiet without anyone disturbing them. (Well, really, only one of those residents wanted to live like that, and the other didn't argue simply because there was a river nearby stocked with plenty of fresh fish, ripe for the taking.)

These residents were Moon and River Butterfly. Former rulers of Mewni and the parents of Star Butterfly, local celebrity. Emphasis on the _former _however. Because things had been quite different once. The two of them were caring rulers while Mewni was still under their control, ruling out justice accordingly and raising their mess of a daughter. Yes, with her around, things occasionally...exploded…(Moon still wondered how she managed to acquire two tons of cooking oil that one time), but other than that, life was good and simple. The Kingdoms got along, the monsters stayed where they were supposed to, which was far, far away from the Mewmans and preferably in graves, and the two of them were happy with their lives.

For a time.

So what changed?

That day, of course. That day was when it all changed. When they had handed off the Royal magic wand to Star and she caused half the Kingdom to be set ablaze. Not good, the MHC ruled. She has to be sent away. She has to be disciplined. So, Star was taken to Earth, met Marco Diaz, the boy who Moon was sure would be her son-in-law one day, and that kicked off a several years-long adventure which effectively caused the death of her most hated enemy, her losing all her power to Eclipsa, the destruction of magic, and the merging of Earth and Mewni. Which was an event that _no one _could have predicted. And caused problems that Moon wanted no part of.

So yeah. "That day" brought quite the chain of events with it.

And sure, she went to those bothersome meetings when it was necessary and occasionally contributed to them, but like the other Royals, she was perfectly content with leaving as soon as possible and going home. Moon avoided everyone on the path, never looking back. What she wanted some days was to reach her house and be done with it. With _all _of it. Some Mewmans tried to talk to her, but she paid them no mind. She was no longer their Queen. Technically, she wasn't even a _Butterfly_ anymore, after the reveal of her family's true heritage at Eclipsa's trial.

Now, Moon was...just Moon.

And she didn't bother denying it when her daughter, the Duumvirate, and everyone else said that she had become a recluse. Because she _was _a recluse. She loathed hearing people outside her house, even if they were just curious humans investigating the strange structure in the middle of the woods. She didn't hate _them_ exactly, but she hated the off grace that she might have to interact with them. Because a part of her felt that if they knew who she was, what she had done with Mina and the Solarians, humanity might grow to hate her like some of the others.

Then all _three _species would have members that saw her as a menace. And the last time that happened, the person who was seen as the danger to society was burned alive. For totally different reasons by a totally different person, but still. Things wouldn't end well if she allowed her enemies to get the better of her. So Moon wasn't about to risk meeting new people only to have them betray her in the end.

Therefore she shied away from everyone else, always telling any people that stumbled upon the house to leave and never come back. But every now and then she got _real _visitors. Star came to see her every once in a while, greatly missing her parents. She spent exponentially more time with Marco's parents than her own nowadays, and the way she talked to the former Queen showed that she wanted to try and change that. After six months of happiness with her boyfriend, it seemed she had forgiven her mother for trying to overthrow Eclipsa and for giving power to Mina. (Something that Marco no doubt had a role. He never did seem to hold any animosity toward Moon for her actions.)

Then Moon invited her in, got a cup of tea for herself, sat down, and the two started a conversation. It was the same thing for each visit, like a cycle. Star always spoke first, and she talked about...normal things, so to speak. How her and Marco's relationship was doing, what was going on with her other friends and around town, and every now and then she made a comment on how Moon should really come back and reunite with the rest of her family. The former Queen always had the same response. "I'll think about it Star." And then she gave her daughter a pre-baked piece of pie to take her mind off the topic. With the butterfly symbol on it and everything.

The pies tasted stale and empty though, like they were created without love, without care. Star knew. It was like having a bowl of plain vanilla ice cream, only to then slather it in chocolate and caramel sauce and erase any previous flavor it had. That was the pie. Even if they were not as good when made without magic, Star could see that Moon wasn't really trying to make it as a show of love. It only served as a distraction.

She was growing even more distant as this went on, and Star, along with everyone else, feared that one day she might pack everything up, desert Earthni, and set out to find a new life somewhere else. There were plenty of places on Earth much more secluded than the forest she resided in after all. Moon was fully aware of this, and had no doubt made plans for where to go if she really chose to up and leave. And they all knew that when Moon finally did this, she wasn't coming back. The fact that it hasn't happened already was due to lack of proper transport, not motivation.

On the other hand however, River was much more amicable and open, taking occasional walks around town or heading to the grocery store for various meats. A new one every week is what he said. He _was _still slightly reserved, no doubt his wife rubbing off him, but tried to make an effort when the townsfolk talked to him. When Star came over, he made sure to ask every question about what was going on in the outside world to her, as a television with cable news was not something that Moon had been reluctant to buy. (After all, it would require a stranger coming into her house for an extended period of time to install it, a thought that made her shudder in place.)

Moon didn't dissuade River's activities nor did she approve of them. As long as he wasn't going around yelling out to the world where they lived or causing any trouble, she had a mostly unbiased stance on the whole thing. He went out, got meat, sparked conversations with people, rinse and repeat. Literally rinse and repeat. River always made sure he took a shower when he got home, believing that the exhaust from the human's metal vehicles, which were called cars and trucks according to Star, would dirty his Johansen blood for whatever reason.

Not that Moon complained. Because frankly, he always needed a shower no matter what time of the day it was. Although it had taken quite a while for her to convince River to install it (it was self-installed), mostly due to the fact that he preferred to bathe in the nearby lake, and if the rumor that all toilets in the town led there was true, then this was extremely unsanitary at best. River eventually consented to this after Moon used the old "I gave birth to our child" excuse, something that she was quite fond of doing. Even if the excuse didn't make sense for said situation, River agreed to it nonetheless.

However, going back to the _real _visitors thing, Star was far from the only one. Eclipsa, for example, had come to visit approximately three times. She didn't seem to hold any kind of grudge against Moon for what she did either, and even appeared to be much _more _forgiving than Star about it. Although Moon still suspected for a while that Eclipsa secretly hated her for it, and that her daughter and Marco had _made _her come over and quote in quote "bury the hatchet."

But it had worked, somehow. The two of them became friends again after these visits, and Moon had even agreed to something for Eclipsa. Something that required her to _go outside _(Eugh! Disgusting…), scout around for anything out of the ordinary, and then call her later to tell her about what she saw. Most days it was nothing. A few times she spotted Ludo wandering around by the river and catching some fish, a skill that he was an expert at, something that surprised Moon. And once she even managed to catch Mina herself in the early days, stomping around and destroying random plants like she was having a temper tantrum. She reported it to Eclipsa, who said she'd take care of it. And that was that. She didn't know why Eclipsa requested she do this, but she didn't care. That part didn't matter.

It was a very boring job. (If it could even be called one, it's not like Moon got paid.) But it gave her something to do besides sit around all day and it also expanded her relationship with the monster Queen, something Star would most certainly appreciate. But Eclipsa had practically begged her to never tell anyone else about this, and Moon obeyed, suspecting that there was likely more behind these little scouting missions than initially thought.

But besides Eclipsa and Star, she saw a bunch more of her former friends from time to time. Buff Frog came to visit, asking for some parenting tips. Marco came by and asked for her blessing to date Star early on, something that she happily gave him. He had proven himself by this point. And she had felt that he'd always be the one for her daughter anyways. Also, Star might come over and throw a hissy fit if she had said no, and Moon was not equipped to repair relations with her _again._

Even if she had hardly done anything herself in the "repairing" department...

And then there were the Mewnian royals knights that one time, who had come by blind drunk, asking for orders because Eclipsa had apparently forgotten about them. She sent them off (shoved, really) after Sir Stabby vomited all over the floor and then asked River for more beer. Somehow it burned through the floor like it was made of wet cardboard, and because she was not and never would be in the mood to repair it, Moon simply filled the hole up with dirt and tossed a throw rug over it. God knows how they found her, and afterwards Moon told River to listen to random people's conversations very carefully while he was out, just in case someone had leaked the location of their dwelling.

But Star, Eclipsa, Marco, Buff Frog, and the knights were basically it. Sure, Marco's parents had come by once, as the Diazes needed to be made a Royal family in order for Marco to marry Star one day, so she told them that she'd pass a note on to Eclipsa telling her to abolish that rule to avoid any hassle. She also gave them permission to go around announcing to the world that they had been made Royals anyways in case Eclipsa refused, so nobody else got any ideas and started tainting Royal bloodlines. (Even if the family line she and Star belonged to was fake, but most days it seemed everyone had forgotten about that and pretended it never happened.) Not that Moon cared about all those "precious" bloodlines, but some of her peers might, and never in a million years was she going to deal with the backlash from _that._

So all this has now brought us to where we currently are. Moon is sitting in her bedroom, reading an article about Earth monarchies on the phone Star bought her (unlimited WiFi), and sipping a corn shake. Perfectly and completely carefre-

"MOONPIE!" River cried out, sounding like a wounded animal that was being skinned alive. Moon's eyes went wide and she leaped out of her chair and grabbed the twin swords hanging on the fireplace mantle as her warriors instinct kicked in. Without skipping a beat, she dashed into the kitchen and took up a fighting stance, ready to slay whatever foolish adversary that had decided to attack her husband.

"What is it? What's wrong?!" She yelled, gripping the sword handles so tightly her knuckles were turning white.

River was standing by the pantry, tears in his eyes and looking like he had just been forced to watch everyone he knew and loved die right in front of him.

"We...are out...of MEAT!" He wailed, screaming at the heavens. The look on his face was one of terror, while the look on Moon's face was now one of pure and utter irritation. She groaned and let the tips of her swords clink against the ground, while River began pacing about, furiously mumbling to himself.

"How could this happen?!" He muttered. "I always make sure that there is at least fifty pounds of meat in here at all times! And considering I eat only twenty five a day, even if I forgot to restock, there should still be twenty five left!" He turned towards his wife. "Moon-pie, you didn't eat our surplus of meat, did you? Without it, we'll starve!"

Moon sighed. "No River, I didn't eat any of it. Are you sure you weren't sleep-eating again?"

River looked at his wife in confusion. "Sleep-what now?"

"Sleep-eating." Moon repeated. "Every now and then, I've seen you wake up in the middle of the night and raid the pantry for meat. One time you came back to bed with a live trout in your hand. I don't even know where you got it from, considering that you never left the house to catch it."

"Sleep-eating…" River mumbled, rubbing his beard in thought. "I can't believe my subconscious self has betrayed me like this! Although, it does explain why I woke up covered in barbecue sauce that one time. And that other time when I woke up covered in deer fur. And then fish scales...and water...and rabbit blood...and-"

"I was there for all of them, I don't need a recap." Moon reminded him, reminiscing about the many hours she spent cleaning the bed because of River's late night cravings. "I'd put a lock on the pantry door, but I knew that wouldn't have stopped you anyway, so I didn't bother."

"Moon-pie." River said seriously. "I request that you now chain me to the bed each night to prevent this dastardly deed from occurring again. I will not allow myself to consume our meat if I do not get to taste it! If we didn't take care of this, it could ruin everything…"

"..."

"..."

"Are you going to go out to catch something else now?" Moon asked, suspecting that her husband might go through withdrawal symptoms if she didn't get something to eat soon.

"Yes, I think I will." River replied. "I heard there are bears in certain parts of the forest. A good hunt, if I do say so myself-"

Before River could start anything else, a bright light suddenly filled up the room, making him freeze mid-syllable. Mom glanced over to the window, the source of the light, and saw a bright fireball appearing through the tree lines and rising over the horizon, nearly blinding her with its intensity. River merely looked on in bewilderment at the rapidly growing light, and as Moon realized that he was standing right in front of the window, she knew that she only had a second to react.

She didn't hesitate.

Moving faster than she ever had in years, Moon threw her two swords to the ground before tackling her husband, sending them both flying towards the cold kitchen floor. A loud roaring sound like a freight train passing overhead was then heard and the window exploded inwards as a shockwave slammed into the house, sending hundreds of small but razor sharp glass fragments into the spot where River had been standing only a moment earlier. Moon hung on to her husband as the debris from the forest came flying through the window afterwards. Twigs, bark, and even a bird or two, all moving fast enough to punch giant holes in the kitchen wall.

Moon, however, suspected that they were far from done, even after the wave of debris stopped coming. The shockwave was only the start. She had heard of these kinds of things before. Things the humans built called nukes that could level entire cities and wipe countries out of existence. If her knowledge of the bombs was right, then they had maybe a few seconds before that fireball reached them and incinerated everything in view. She had no time to decide if she was acting rashly or even if the explosion was a nuke in the first place. The fear had triggered her fight or flight response, and what could she possibly do to fight against this?

"COME ON!" She yelled, grabbing her husband's arm and yanking him upwards. He started asking her what was going on, but Moon ignored this and forced him to run with him. River was completely ignorant of the nukes, having fallen asleep during the meeting where Eclipsa talked about Earth weaponry and why it would be a _very bad idea _to attempt to make war with the world they had merged with. And after being shown some footage and pictures of the aftermath of Earth wars, with lush landscapes turned into fields of dead men and twisted metal, all done without the use of magic, the Royals were more than happy to agree with this sentiment.

But he didn't argue. He wasn't sure what was going on, but this was a side of Moon he rarely saw, so it had to be serious. The two of them got to their feet and Moon practically dragged River over to the basement, her mind flooding with thoughts as the fear of an inescapable demise clouded her vision and made the world and all the sounds around her fade away.

'Why wasn't there a warning!?' She thought frantically. 'Didn't Eclipsa say that sirens would start blaring if something like this happened? And who bombed us?! Was it Bren?! Some other Earth government?! A-and what about Star and…' She shook her head. 'NO! Head to the basement. Think about that later. It doesn't matter right now. It _can't matter _right.'

With no time to lose, Moon reached the basement door, flung it open, threw River down the stairs, and then slammed it shut as she hopped in herself. The two of them sprinted over to the "sub-basement" they had, a simple crawl space surrounded by pure bedrock. At any moment Moon expected the flames from the bomb to come bursting in through the door and scorch them alive, but they didn't. But Moon wasn't anymore relieved, as they likely still only had seconds more to spare. Ever since the merge, she had a habit of assuming the worst.

Once inside the crawl space, she closed the steel door that covered it and secured its five locks, their last line of protection. Then finally, _finally, _the two of them caught a breath. Moon panted heavily like she was hyperventilating and rested her head against the rock wall, praying that this would be enough. River was sweating like a pig, having no idea what was going on but still fully aware of the fact that it was bad.

"Don't relax yet." Moon wheezed, expecting the house to start shaking at any moment upon impact with the fireball. "It's not over."

"What's going on?!" River asked, finally getting a proper word in. "What was that explosion?!"

"If my assumptions are correct, then that explosion was the result of a bomb that may have destroyed most of not all of Earthni." Moon explained as River's eyes grew even wider. "You wouldn't know because you fell asleep during the meeting where Eclipsa explained this kind of thing."

"But who would do that?" River asked, shrinking away from Moon as if she was a camp counselor telling a scary story around a campfire to a bunch of children. "Why would anyone want to destroy….wait. You don't think...that it was that little white-haired brat who crashed the last meeting, did you?"

"I'm not sure, but I honestly hope not." Moon said. "Because if he has the resources to build or steal a weapon like that, then I think we never had a chance to begin with."

"T-then what do we do now?"

"We sit and we wait for a while until the fireball disperses." Moon said, having planned everything out already. "After that we leave and get as far away from the radiation zone as possible. There's obviously no food or water in here, so we can't stay. If we're _lucky, _we might be able to escape in time."

River didn't know what radiation was, and was about to query his wife on it, until he realized that her plan had overlooked something important to them both.

"What about Star?" He put forward. "She's still somewhere out there! We got no warning beforehand, so I doubt she did either! We have to go back and search for her. And everyone else!"

"I'm not sure we can." Moon claimed, even though it hurt her to say it. "Like I was saying, we have to get away from the radiation. It's probably dangerous for us to be anywhere near the town, even underground like this. I only built this structure to withstand blasts like that after seeing all the civil unrest on Earth, but I never made it to be radiation proof. In fact, we should get going right about now. The flames should have died down to a point where they're not covering everything."

"We're surrounded by a forest Moon! Everything's going to be on fire!" River pointed out. "Going outside will surely be a death sentence, and I'm not going to lose you to this!"

"We have no other choice." Moon said. "We either go, and possibly die by the forest fire, or stay, and die a slow, agonizing death by radiation sickness. Which is it going to be?"

River was briefly taken aback by this. Normally his wife was always so level-headed, taking a long time to decisions that made sense. He personally couldn't see much sense in this plan, but was also aware that Moon wasn't going to back out. His wife was leaving, and would drag him along with her if she had to. The former king sighed and accepted that she was likely right. There was no better option, and he'd rather not die to this "radiation," if her brief description was what she said it was.

"Very well." He mumbled. "Let us be off."

"Good. Because if you said no, I'd have knocked you out and carried you on my back." Moon said, before reaching her hand over and unlocking the metal door in front of her. She slowly swung it open, and prepared to shield River just in case a wave of fire came rushing in. But nothing of the sort appeared. In fact, as far as she could see, the entire basement was fine. Untouched and looking like it had been when they first ran down the stairs. Almost like a city ending bomb _hadn't _been set off. Moon was briefly confounded by this but shook it off. Obviously either the basement was sturdier than it looked or she had just been overestimating the bombs power.

"Come on." She almost whispered, and the two of them crawled out and took a few deep breaths, the air as fresh as could be. Outside, they could hear faint screaming in the distance and helicopters flying overhead, no doubt investigating the scene of the-

"Hold on." She said aloud, stopping in place and holding River back with her hand.

"What is it now?" River asked. "Didn't you say we have to hurry because of the...radiation, or whatever it was called?"

"Yes, but…" Moon paused. "I-give me a minute. Something's not right." She rubbed her forehead as she struggled to remember something else that Eclipsa had mentioned at the meeting. Wasn't there something called EMP that was set off whenever a nuclear weapon was detonated? Because of electromagnetic radiation and some other odd Earth science words that nobody really understood but accepted as truth? Moon and the other Royals hadn't bothered to try and learn more about it after the meeting, as the footage scared them enough to believe it.

But she _did _know that whenever this "EMP" was set off, it fried all electronic devices for a good few miles, depending on the altitude and size of the bomb. So those helicopters shouldn't be casually flying around like that. Unless electronics that were already shut off weren't affected as bad…?

Either way, Moon knew that something was up. She cautiously took a step towards the stairs and started to ascend them while River followed, the creaking of their feet against the wood sounding like thunder despite all the noise going on outside. Once Moon reached the top, she grabbed the handle with her hand, expecting it to be burning hot or at least warm from all the heat the bomb must have caused.

It was still cold. Colder than usual, if anything, and Moon began to get a feeling like the situation wasn't as bad as initially surmised. She took the handle in her hand and cautiously opened the door, peeking out from the crack as if there was a giant monster on the other side ready to tear her limb from limb if it spotted her.

There was no giant monster. There was no surprise waiting for her, besides the one that the house was mostly intact except for a few fallen plates in the kitchen and a dozen or so shattered windows. But other than that, it was all fine. And even more suspicious, when Moon looked out said windows, she saw that the forest was not on fire. The only sign outside that _anything _had blown up in the first place was a thick column of smoke rising up in the distance, from the spot where they had seen the earlier light.

Moon almost facepalmed as she realized that it had not in fact been a nuke. It was just a regular bomb, EMP-free and with a blast radius far too small to reach them. She had been overreacting for nothing, except for the tackling part. That was totally justified.

Although River seemed to have trouble understanding it at first.

"What happened?" He asked again. "Shouldn't the house be destroyed right now? I thought you said-"

"Yes, I did say that, but I was wrong." Moon admitted. "This was no nuke. Something just blew up and I assumed the worst a little too quickly. But…" She gulped and clenched her fists. "...that doesn't make this any less worse."

Moon walked over to the door to put on her boots and the hooded cape she usually wore whenever she went outside. She didn't know why this had happened, but she wasn't going to find out by standing around. Even she knew that there were times when she had to act like a Queen again and help her people through a crisis. She wasn't sure what exactly she was _going _to do to help, but whatever it was, it was better than staying home.

"I'm going out to see what happened." She told River, who glanced at her in surprise. "You stay here and clean up all the glass and anything else that's broken. Try not to cut yourself, and don't get distracted by anything. Hopefully I won't be long, but if I am, don't come looking to me."

Before River could say anything, Moon was already out the door, leaving him standing there alone, confused as to why she left so quickly instead of staying there and helping him clean up. Because letting River clean something up by himself was something she almost _never _did. He now knew that it was probably for the better if he left this to his wife, considering her mood. He rummaged around a nearby closet for a few minutes before finding an old dustpan and a broom, and then gazed at the kitchen and living room floors which were practically carpeted with glass. So much glass that stepping anywhere might be deadly, regardless of foot placement.

"I just wanted some meat." He grumbled, and before long, he got to work, as Moon took one last look at him from outside the nearest window as she ran from the house and into the woods.

"How long until we get to see her?"

"Visiting hours start in five minutes. So...five minutes. Maybe six or seven considering both of you will have to fill out our visitor form."

"Seven minutes? I refuse to wait that long! Do you know what we've-"

"River, stop. Complaining like that will only get us kicked out."

"I...fine. But no more than five minutes, or I'm barging in there regardless of who tries to stop me!"

"If you say so." The desk attendant said, who then went back to filling out more forms on their desk, of which there were about a million of. The stacks practically encompassed the entire surface like some kind of makeshift wall. The attendant looked like they were having a migraine, but simply grit their teeth and wrote things down as fast as they could, keenly aware of how much there was left to do.

Everything was going wrong.

And not just for the desk attendant. For Moon and River, ever since they had seen that light and their window and been blown in, the two of them felt like they were living in their own personal hell, much like every single person in Earthni at the moment. For some, it was a grievous injury to their being, causing pain that had the capacity to last for months on end. For others, it was a dead friend or family member. And for Moon and River, their daughter Star was in the hospital, put there by her boyfriend that had been possessed by an ancient fire-god, according to Eclipsa.

Oh, and all their windows had been blown out, which made a _terrible _mess. And River's job of cleaning was...not satisfactory, to put things lightly.

So to sum things up, they got off pretty easy compared to the rest of the town. Because most people were outside that day, and well...we all know what happened with _that_. But this didn't dissuade them from feeling any better than the rest. Because again, their daughter was in a hospital bed, beaten into unconsciousness by literal divine power. After discovering what had happened to the town, Moon made an effort to find Star as fast as possible. But the road to the Diazes house was blocked off by a fallen building, and Moon didn't know the human side of town well enough to find another way around. (She had never paid attention to the part of the meeting where they discussed maps, primarily because she hardly ever went outside her house in the first place.)

So then she tried to find Eclipsa, (who knew every side of town _very _well), but that didn't go so well. Mobs of civilians ran around, begging for help, looking for loved ones, none of them in any state that could be called "alive." But after what seemed like forever, Moon found what she was looking for. She could still remember the face she made when she finally caught up with Eclipsa hours later, after pushing her way through a giant throng of people at town hall, most of whom weren't even going for Eclipsa but just running around frantically, trying to sort things out. It was pure and utter chaos.

And the current Queen had certainly seen better days. Her eyes were bloodshot, her dress was covered in dust and ash that she hadn't bothered to wipe off, and her signature hat was missing, having fallen off and been trampled by a crowd a few hours ago while she was trying to get to the explosion crater. And the look on her face...Moon didn't even know how to describe it. She looked shell-shocked, same as everyone else. But there was something else in there too. Dread. A deep, endless dread. Because Eclipsa was fully aware of what this all meant. This wasn't something they could recover from in a day, a week, a month, or even a year. The townsfolk would spend the rest of their lives trying to get over what happened, but never would. When the next day came, nothing was going to change. The night only brought darkness, but the explosion took care of everything else.

And when Moon looked directly into her eyes, she knew that Eclipsa saw the end of Earthni over the horizon. The end of all they had worked for. Possibly the end of her as well. Only time could tell. And time was something they did not have on their side.

This didn't mean that Moon simply walked away however. Bottomless dread or not, she had been fearing the worst for Star for a good few hours, and was worried that she had been hurt, or even worse, killed. After basically bombarding Eclipsa with questions, the Queen took a deep breath, said "she's in the hospital, and she's alive", and then walked away to deal with other matters that were far more important. It took Moon every bit of self-restraint she had to not run after her and forced Eclipsa tell her everything, but reason won after she saw the environment that the poor and exhausted woman had been forced to work in, and was _going_ to work in throughout the entire night.

So Moon straightened herself and left the Mayor's office, with the only thing she gained from the wild goose chase being a small tidbit of information. It was enough however. Star was alright. Injured, obviously, due to her location, but alive. Moon tried to get down to the hospital, but halfway there she realized that it might not be the best place to be right now. She could only imagine hundreds of wounded and dying people all trying to get in at the same time, and in a situation like that, her authority as the former Queen meant bupkis.

So she headed back home, where River was waiting for her. She had to haul him away from the door after telling him what Eclipsa told her, something that River rather badly too. Moon eventually had to resort to tying him to a chair to call him down. She struggled for what felt like hours before suddenly fell asleep, suffering from meat withdrawal. He was still shaking even now, although it might be because of both the meat _and _Star.

Moon didn't sleep that night, instead keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't wake up and try to escape again. That and swatting the various bugs that had flown into the house due to the lack of windows. River has covered most of them up with some thick plywood sheets he found in the basement while she was gone, but enough had already gotten inside that everywhere Moon looked, there was always another insect in her sight. She must have received at least twenty bites, and those were just the ones she could feel.

It was a bad night. The first of many to come.

But in the morning, she had called Eclipsa the second the sun appeared over the horizon, who thankfully answered after about fifteen rings or so. The Queen already knew who it was and what they wanted, so she babbled out a quick explanation about how and why Star was in the hospital, making sure to include the fact that _no, _this was not Marco's fault, he was possessed. Also the fact that Bren killed him and then he was resurrected shortly afterwards, which may or may not have turned him into an emotionless husk of a person. Then he told her the room number that Star was in and hung up. And like the information she received last night, it was enough for Moon. Short and quick, but it was what she needed to ease her fears about Star's situation.

This wasn't to say it didn't disturb her however.

With this, both her, Eclipsa, Marco, Star, and likely several other people now knew that there was a _god _going against them. Even if Eclipsa had mentioned the fact that it wouldn't be taking over Marco again, it still made Moon very uneasy. What consequences did this bring with it? Did they have any chance at beating something like that? If it had been masterminding all of this from the beginning, and was on Bren's side...then what did this mean...for them? For _all _of them?

After this, these thoughts were the only thing she could keep her mind on. She now understood why Eclipsa had that expression on her face. Because she had been thinking about the same thing for hours and hours, and it clearly took a toll. Moon couldn't and wouldn't let herself fall into that same trap. She had to remain strong. Level-headed. For herself. For River. And most especially for Star.

After she woke River up, the two of them went down to the hospital, ignoring the call for an emergency meeting for the first time, and entered the ruin mess of a town. Moon had already seen it of course. As darkness came over the town and she walked back from the Mayor's office, she had her fair share of what the explosion brought with it. Things she did not wish to recount but would be forced to in her nightmares.

But the fact that this had an effect on her to begin with was certainly something. Because she hadn't had a nice, calm, cushion-filled stereotypical Queen life that Moon knew the humans were so fond of. Nowadays on Earth, Royals lived in complete luxury, were kept far away from the battlefield, and rarely saw any blood spilled in front of them. But of all the differences two dimensions had when they were still separate, perhaps none was greater than this. (Apart from one being magical and the other technological obviously.)

On _Mewni_, the Kings and Queens rode into the battlefield alongside their knights, slaying enemies left and right. They were given special protection, sure, but in the heat of a true battle, they were like any other soldier. Vulnerable. In the line of fire. One might even say disposable. When it came right down to it, the only differences on the battlefield between them and normal soldiers was that their bodies were usually retrieved first, and little else. But it was war, and war was something Mewni knew all too well. Moon had seen quite a few, and those few were enough to convince her that none should ever be fought again, not unless it was absolutely necessary.

So all this carnage should have assured that nothing the explosion brought with it would have even fazed her. But it did. Because for one thing...this was no war. It hadn't even been a battle. This was nothing but a slaughter. Nothing but a way for Bren to get revenge/amuse himself with their pain. (As far as Moon's knowledge of this went at least. If he had a motive for all this other than that, it was unknown to her.)

However, the slaughter itself, all the people who had been killed, that wasn't what really disturbed her about all this. It was the ones who were still alive. Because Moon had gotten a look into how _they _saw all of this. These people were the ones who turned their gaze away from the sight of blood for no other reason than the fact that it made them uncomfortable. And now these _same _people were now faced with the grueling task of having to slowly find and collect the individual pieces of their friends and family, unsure of how many of these pieces belonged to corpses that had nothing to do with them. It was possible that by the end of this, they'd just grab anything they saw and throw it all in a coffin, hoping that it belonged to someone they knew, as most of it was all too burned and scrambled (literally) to make any kind of accurate DNA analysis.

Those people would be scarred for the rest of their days. Their lives might never go back to normal. The way things were before the blast was only a memory now, one they could never get back to. Rebuilding wouldn't help. Neither would memorials or funerals or celebrations of their lives. Because in the end, it still happened. They had died brutally and cruelly, taken away much too fast and much too early. This was not death, this was…

was…

…...no. It _was _death. That's what it was and what it was always going to be. There was no other way to truly describe it. It was death, and he had arrived early, with some help. Nothing more. The townsfolk could tell themselves as much as they wanted that this wasn't real, that things like this _didn't happen _in real life. But they couldn't be more wrong. Because this _was _real life. Real life is people you love getting taken away in an instant, and being unable to do anything about it. Real life is people hating you to the point of wanting to take lives, hence Bren. Real life...is torture. And the only thing left to do was to endure it all, push through, and move on.

The ones trapped in the past make the most mistakes. And the ones looking too far at the future tend to overthink everything and drown themselves in anxiety. The ones that stay in the present...well, they're not perfect either.

But to Moon, she had trouble deciding which one of these three she was. Most of the townsfolk would be the past. Eclipsa and the Royals, who focused on nothing but what might happen because of this, were the future. So did that make her the present? Because she didn't care what happened next and wanted to forget everything that _had _happened?

No, of course not. She still cared about the future. Even if the future looked pretty..._ahem..._shitty at the moment. But she also didn't _want _to think about it overall. So in the end, Moon decided that she was neither of three, and she'd figure it out as she went along. Because there was already enough to think about at the moment without having to worry about that as well.

It all affected Moon pretty badly. But there was one person with her that night, one who had yet to get a glimpse of the aftermath. And when morning came, it was now River's turn to get a taste of what the night had brought with it. Because after all, he had stayed home, while his wife went out to investigate. He knew what happened, but at the same time, not really. Moon couldn't bring herself to describe in detail what had become of the town, only telling him that a lot of people were dead or dying, and most things were burning. That was literally it before she informed him of Star's condition. He was going into this practically blind. Granted, he saw plenty of horrors back on Mewni as well, but not nearly as much as his wife.

Being a Johansen, River was naturally warlike and bloodthirsty, but he usually put that part of his personality into hunting instead of fighting actual _sentient_ beings. He had killed before, and fought in wars, but that whole thing was Moon's metier really. He preferred one-on-one brawls with opponents ten times stronger than him. Short fights. Duels. The like. Things that wouldn't prepare him for the aftermath of the blast.

So he was a bit underprepared for what the bomb had brought. The people dying were once again, not fighters, but just normal people trying to live out their lives. When someone got hurt, he was used to them getting right back on their feet and fighting on, not falling to the ground while howling in pain and pleading for the pain to cease. The face he made as he walked through it all visibly showed his shock at the sights, but he still managed to keep his cool. If only because the worst of it, the dozens of broken bodies and half-dead civilians littering the streets, some of them literally crying tears of blood, had already been taken away or left to go die elsewhere.

And now they were at the hospital. Which was just a complete mess. It reminded Moon of how the Mayor's office was last night, with doctors and nurses running around, wheeling patients from room to room, and digging up cases and cases of emergency supplies from the basement and storage rooms in order to keep up with the demand. Even though most of the injured had been taken to hospitals in neighboring towns under Eclipsa's orders, as she knew that there was no way theirs would be able to hold the literal _thousands _in need of medical attention. An estimated 65 percent of Earthni was dead or wounded. The explosion may have only taken up a small part of the town, but the rocks, the shockwave, and basically the shards of every single window in town being flung into people's face was the real kicker. It was a miracle that there were as few deaths as there was.

It could have gone so much worse.

And even the lobby was crowded. Moon and River sat quietly while several of the wounded, their injuries sloppily bandaged and cleaned, laid on the floor or on benches. Unfortunately, none of them were allowed to leave until the proper paperwork was filed out. But they were okay with that. Most were just happy to have a chance to finally relax. Accompanying all of them was one single doctor on standby, ready to help in case they started bleeding again.

Oh, and speaking of blood, the hospital was all out of that as well. It had been maybe thirty or forty minutes before they had completely used up the supply. An incredible feat, all things considered. Things looked more grim than ever as the announcement was made, at least until they started recycling the lost blood that patients lost. It was risky, but it seemed to be working for now. Still, twenty people had already bled to death since they arrived, and more were sure to follow. The doctors were crying. The patients were crying out. Everyone was crying in one way or another.

Everything...was going wrong.

But Moon drowned all of it out. She'd get to see Star soon after all. According to the desk attendant, her room had been locked and was being guarded so nobody tried to break in to take the pitiful amount of medical equipment that was inside. Because that was what it was coming to now. The hospital was turning into a city, a city where crime ran rampant. And the criminals were...effectively everybody.

And since Eclipsa claimed that most of the police department was either dead or dying, it's not like there was coming over to try and restore order. The two people guarding Star's rooms were one of the hospital's only remaining security guards. Most of the rest were running back and forth to the supply rooms and back, getting what was needed for the doctors to do their work. Obviously not a job they were accustomed too, but it's not like they had a choice.

Moon stood and leaned against a pillar (there were no open seats), while River brooded in a nearby corner like a child who had just been grounded. Unlike his wife, who had managed to keep herself calm and collected, River hadn't bothered hiding his emotions. His grumbling got louder and louder, although the sounds of the surrounding hospital were ten times louder, allowing him to complain about whatever he pleased. Moon overheard tidbits of it, mostly about how these "quacks" should let him see Star immediately because of his status as a Royal. Moon frowned at the thought of her husband going that low. He was actually considering the idea of pulling the Royal card. She was never particularly fond of doing it. It made the nobility look pushy and uptight.

And yes, most of them _were _just that, but in the old days, Moon preferred to keep her reputation as clean as possible compared to her fellow rulers. She didn't care as much now, considering that she never wanted to be in charge of the kingdom ever again, but if they saw River stomping about, they'd quickly associate him with her, and thus the outrage that the citizens once held towards her (and some still did) would resurface and cause an angry mob to descend upon her home. Once they found it of course.

Which might take a while…

But Moon would make sure to hold River back if he tried to do anything stupid. But if only the damn desk attendant-

"Hey!"

"Hm?" Moon hummed, glancing over to her right. There she saw the attendant out of their chair and standing right next to the swinging-door entrance of the main hospital, with one of the security guards that had been protecting Star's room by her side. Moon breathed a heavy sigh of relief upon realizing that the two of them were finally about to visit Star. "Yes?" She said, despite already knowing what this was about.

"I just got confirmation." The attendant said. "Visiting hours have started, and I filled out both your forms so your psycho husband doesn't go all ape on me. You now have permission to go and see your daughter." They pointed at the guard. "They'll escort you up there. You can take as long as you want, because frankly, I decided that visiting hours didn't matter right now."

"Then why did we have to wait?" River bellowed, his impatience with the whole state of affairs breaking through the surface.

"Because I had to fill out the forms to let you go in the first place. Visiting hours may not matter, but those certainly do." The attendant sighed. "Do you know how many patients and doctors we have in the building right now? I can't let you go in unless you're useful or in need of help. Obviously, you're not either of those, but we were worried that your daughter might try to break out again if she heard that you were here and she didn't get to see you."

"Break out?" Moon queried.

"Again?" River asked.

"Yeah. Again." The attendant deadpanned. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do." They sat back down in their chair and then mumbled, "I'm never going to get to finish that game of solitaire…"

River and Moon exchanged glances but deduced that Star attempting to "break out" was something they could discuss with her personally. They walked up to the guard who did a 180 and pushed open the doors, while the two of them followed directly behind him. Because if it was done any other way, they'd immediately get seperated by the gigantic gaggle of people that were passing by every second. They had to stick to him like lint to a sweater, and even then it was difficult. But they managed, went down hallways, up stairs, then made it to another level which was just as chaotic as the one they came from. But Moon knew that Star had to be close. Almost like she had some sort of weird, nonsensical, and convenient psychic bond with her that allowed the former Queen to sense her presence.

And then she knew that they _really _made it when the trio approached a door that had another guard standing in front of it, obviously the one who had been chosen to stay behind to safeguard the room. He was glaring at anyone passing by with a deep expression of distrust, like a police officer eyeing someone they suspected was a thief.

"Your daughter is in there, and like the person at the front desk said, you can take as much time as you want." The guard explained, cutting straight to the point. "Just don't touch anything, and under no circumstances should you disconnect her from any of the machines in there." He sighed. "All mandatory stuff I've been required to tell you, sorry if I was rude."

"It's quite alright." Moon reassured him. "Now, River, we-"

"We're going in now!" River said, pushing past his wife and grabbing the doorknob. He twisted it, only for it to stop short and made a clicking noise.

"Oh. Sorry." The second guard second, motioning for River to move so he could unlock it. River begrudgingly stepped to the side and waited patiently for the guard to do his work, which took no more than a second. After the door was unlocked, he opened it for the two visitors and they entered, before the door closed behind them with a faint _click. _

Once she was satisfied that they were alone, Moon turned to looked at Star, and gasped at the sight of her daughter, sound asleep in the bed (the room was a soundproof one, at least towards any noises coming from the rest of the hospital), covered in bandages and hooked up to several large machines. One seemed to be a heart monitor, but the rest Moon couldn't make heads or tails of. She glanced over at River, who seemed to be boiling with rage at the sight of his child in this condition. Moon decided that it'd be best to wake up Star and kickstart a conversation. Hopefully it'd calm him down somewhat.

She slowly walked over to her, taking care not to bump into anything. Wires were all over the place, as well as a few chairs. Once Moon got closer, she sat down in one of them and clear her throat.

"Star…" She said. "We're here. Your father and I...we're here to see you."

"..."

"...Star…?"

Moon received no response at first, and was about to try for a third time, until Star groaned sleepily and started to open her eyes, loudly smacking her mouth like there was a bad taste inside of it she wanted to get rid of. Her groggy eyes fell upon her mother, but didn't open any further. Her next response was to start speaking, although her voice sounding like it had been thrown in a garbage disposal.

"Mom…?" She said weakly, still trying to wake herself up. "Is that...you? You're...really here?"

"Yes sweetheart, it's me." Moon answered happily, smiling at her while River seemed to perk up at the sound of his daughter's voice, distorted as it was. "Along with your father. We're both here to see you."

"...Why?" She asked, turning away from them.

"Because...we were worried?" Moon said, confused as to why she would have to give an answer to a question like that.

"Ah. That makes sense." Star said, letting her eyelids remain at half-mast, not fully opened nor fully closed. "Sorry. I'm just surprised to see you outside of your house. And in a place that has so many people in it. Unless...huh. Unless this is another dream."

"Dream?" Moon queried.

"I've been having some dreams lately...well, more like nightmares." Star revealed, turning further away and sinking into the bed. "Ever since I arrived. About you guys...and a bunch of other people coming to visit me. You're all so nice. All my friends...right there in front of me. And they bring me stuff...my favorite foods, my favorite games, everything. All for me."

River rubbed his beard. "Well, I certainly don't see why something like that is a nightmare! If I had dreams like that, I'd go to sleep earlier every night! Why-"

"The dreams don't end there." Star moaned. "I don't realize they're dreams until I spot something...off. It can be small, it can be big, but eventually something...some…" Star paused and then started coughing violently, before quickly grabbing an empty plastic bowl that was next to the bed in case she threw up. (It would have been the fourth time. The other three were during the night, usually right after she woke up from a nightmare.) Luckily, nothing came out, if only because her stomach was already completely hollow.

Moon rushed into action the second the first cough came out of her mouth, holding her shoulder and comforting her. "It's okay Star, it's okay. Take your time." She turned around. "River, go find a doctor, just in ca-"

"Don't bother." Star said, setting the bowl down and rubbing her throat. "None of them have any time to deal with me. This room may be soundproof, but I heard the explosion from outside." She looked down solemnly. "I'm betting the hospital is packed, right?"

"...That's exactly right." Moon admitted sadly. "It's chaos out there."

Star frowned and leaned back as far as her body could take her. "I suppose we can talk about that whole mess later. But...in those nightmares...something's always off. It can be anything. Dad's eating a vegetarian meat substitute-"

River retched in the background, causing Star to giggle slightly before continuing, the first time Moon had seen her smile since she woke up.

"...Or Janna's a little more talkative and friendly than she should be to other people. And then there was this one time…" Star then made a face that convinced Moon that she might need to grab the bowl again. "...Bren was there, and he called me his _girlfriend. _I woke up screaming as loud as I could from that one. And then I vomited everywhere. Again."

"Oh Star…" Moon said, leaning forward and carefully giving her daughter a hug, who returned it a moment later, even though her arms felt like overcooked noodles. "I'm so sorry this happened to you. I-I should have done something. I should have been there for you."

"It's okay." Star said. "But...you do know how this happened, right? Why I'm here like this?"

"I do." Moon said, nodding. "And before you ask, no, I'm not mad at Marco, nor do I blame him. Eclipsa filled me in on everything, especially his possession. He's not at fault for something like that." She disengaged from the hug and put her hands together. "I only wish I knew _why _it chose him…"

"Maybe to get close to me without me suspecting anything until it was too late." Star suggested. "I mean, it didn't work, I figured it out and then he beat the shit out of-"

"Please Star, language." Moon said.

"Sorry." Star apologized, still too tired to scoff about her mother's prissiness. "I figured it out and then he beat me up. I'm pretty sure I would have died if Marco hadn't come back in a small way and realized what he was doing. He sorta...ran off to the Sanctuary afterward, Angie found me, and I assume you know the rest."

"A heavily abridged version, but yes." Moon said. "But Star...Eclipsa told me that you were on your feet during that time. That you actually tried to _fight off_ some doctors and refused care for hours. Then she also made a comment on how you jumped up while you were in this bed. But now you look like you're…" A small tear came to Moon's eye as she stopped herself from saying the word "dying", as the very concept of her child's death happening in a place like this saddened her to the point of bawling aloud. "What...what happened? Did the doctors give you something to calm you down?"

"Not really." Star mumbled. "Late last night, after another one of my nightmare and vomit sessions, I just started...hurting. Everywhere. Like my body was on fire. I called for a doctor, who arrived after like _ten minutes_, and he said that all the excess movement and resistance I did while I should have been getting treated for my injuries was finally taking effect. Kinda like how people who use adrenaline have super sore arms and legs the next day or something. They think it might have something to do with my Johansen blood. That my body was holding off the pain for as long as it could, but...it wasn't good enough."

"So now…"

"I'm weaker than a kitten." Star said, rolling her eyes. "I kinda regret trying to stab that doctor in the eye with a needle now. They're all just trying to help me, even if they don't have the time."

"I'm sorry, you tried to do _what_?"

"Nothing!" Star exclaimed, although using her voice at that level clearly pained her. "I was just...pissed about Marco getting killed like that. It was practically five seconds after I heard the news, and they tried to stop me from going to the Sanctuary to kill Bren."

"What did stop you?" River asked., finally inserting himself into the conversation.

"Marco coming back to life of course." Star said, as if she was stating the obvious. "Someone burst into the room screaming about how it was the zombie apocalypse or something, all because they had seen Marco rise from the dead. They were crazy."

"I think my mind would go to zombies as well, if I saw that happening." River stated. "Although...considering that magic is still no more-"

"Heh. Not for demon magic…" Star interjected.

"Demon what?" He asked.

"I'll explain in a bit. But no, they were totally crazy. You should have seen them. It's kinda hilarious now that I think back on it."

"If we're all done talking about zombies, I'd like to know more about your condition Star." Moon requested. "What did Marco _do _to you? Is there anything life-threatening about this?"

"I'll live. I know that for a fact." Star stated. "So don't worry about me too much, because soon I'll be back to one hundred percent...hopefully. But none of this is permanent. I just got tossed around a bit mom. No big deal!"

"Star…" Moon said softly, her tone indicating exactly what she meant.

"I know." The teen whispered, sounding almost like a child again. "I shouldn't be thinking about this like I just got a paper cut or something. Especially considering how much pain I'm in right now. But mom, I've been through _way _worse."

"Have you though?" Moon asked, looking at Star with a "don't give me all that" expression. "I remember almost every detail of your life before I sent you to Earth all those years ago. And no injury you had before then can possibly compare to this. Not even the ones you received during your combat training with the royal knights. And I'm sure that none you received _afterwards _can compare either."

Moon leaned forward. "Star...this is new. For you. For me. For all of us. You may not be able to tell, but the fact that this happened to you and I didn't do anything to stop it...it's filling me with more grief than you can imagine. Because I _could _have. If I opened up more and interacted with people like you wanted me too. I could have stopped Marco. I could have-"

"Mom, you would _not _have been anywhere near us when he beat me up." Star said, getting tired of her mother's rambling. "Trust me. It was after we had a beach day, at the Diazes house, as I'm sure you know. And besides, he attacked me in my bedroom, and the whole reason I was in there in the first place was for something that you would _never _have witnessed. If you were there, I'd totally asked you to leave beforehand, and then Marco would attack once I realized that he wasn't in charge. You being there wouldn't change anything, because I'd have made sure you were far, far away when it happened."

Moon paused, went over everything Star just said, and then shifted her gaze directly to her daughter's face while giving her a look of suspicion. "Star…" She hummed. "What "reason" were the two of you in your bedroom for before he turned on you? What was your plan exactly? And…" Moon leaned ever closer. "Why would you want me to be far, far away when "it" happened?"

"Uhh…" Star stuttered, not and never wanting to explain how she had been ready back then to have her first time with Marco, only for everything to fall flat on its face. She couldn't imagine how disappointed her mother might be if she told her about any of that, performing in such "shenanigans" before she was properly prepared to indulge in that sort of thing. And as for her father? Star didn't even want to think about it. They'd only be disappointed in _her _too, since anything that she claimed Marco said could be played off as the fault of his possession. She had to come up with a convincing lie. Fast.

"Marco asked me to eat a movie with him." Star said. "But he said it was really violent, so it'd be best if we watched it alone and with nobody else around. But obviously, things didn't turn out that way, and we never got around to doing that."

"A movie." Moon said, unconvinced. She put her hand over her face and glanced at her bedridden child in a way that let her know that _she _knew what Star was _really _hoping for. "You're a terrible liar when it comes to things like this." Moon claimed. "But Star, later on you and me are going to have a talk about this sort of thing, understand? You're much too young to be doing that sort of thing anyways."

"Pft, you wouldn't be saying that if we were back on Mewni…" Star mumbled, although her cheeks had already turned bright red out of embarrassment.

"Actually, I'd be saying it more." Moon said. "Because there you were still the heir to the throne."

"Okay, can we please talk about anything _other _than that?" Star asked. "This isn't something we should be talking about right now. It's not that important."

"Yes, and I agree." Moon said, straightening up. "_But..._once you're out of the hospital, I don't want to hear about you or Marco doing that sort of thing without us having a say in it. Plenty of Queens in the past have gotten pregnant too early, and-"

"No mom! Don't say anything more!" Star pleaded. "I'm not ever going to be Queen for one thing, because I rejected Eclipsa's proposal of wanting me to be Queen for a while until Meteora is ready, and for another, I don't know how much more of this I can take! Please don't go any further with that right now. _And dad is still right there._"

Moon glanced to her right and saw River rubbing his beard again, trying to decipher what the two in front of him were going on about. That or he was thinking about meat. He did seem to have a twinkle in his eyes after all, one that Moon recognized as the expression that he put on anytime he thought about food. So he made that expression quite a lot, especially nowadays.

"Fine." Moon said. She snapped her fingers in front of River's face to get his attention. "Now then, there was something you mentioned earlier I believe. Something called "Demon magic" after I commented on how all magic is destroyed. What exactly...is that?"

"Oh. That...that's complicated." Star understated, knowing this conversation was coming but still not looking forward to it. "It's the thing that helped us send Bren's demon back to the Underworld. The ritual we used was actually mentioned back at the meeting, although I guess nobody remembered considering all the other stuff that happened."

Moon scowled at the sudden memory influx of Bren crashing the Council meeting and generally just being an asshole. It was not a nice memory. Although really, could _any _of her recent memories be considered "nice?"

Definitely not.

But. Magic still being around. Rituals and stuff. Much more significant things to deal with right now.

"Are you saying that magic wasn't destroyed?" Moon asked. "That's it's still _out _there? Because if so, that means you, me, Eclipsa, and Meteora somehow failed. Was the whispering spell not permanent or was there still a small bit left after-"

"No, the whispering spell worked, and magic is dead." Star stated confidently. "But this is...Demon magic. And as Janna told me, Marco, and Eclipsa, it's not the same thing as whatever magic we blew up with the spell. They're different."

"How so?" River asked.

Star paused and tried to think of a satisfactory answer. It's not like she was completely ignorant in the matter, but she only remembered a small part of what Janna had explained to her about it. With everything that had happened since that little incident, she began to find it more and more difficult to keep up with how fast things were going.

That or Marco gave her brain damage. She'd have to ask one of the doctors to check up on that later on. Give her one of those weird scans in those giant machines she saw on that hospital show Ponyhead once tried to get her into. It didn't work, although it did provide an interesting (if factually incorrect) insight into Earth medicine.

But she _was _able to recall enough that she could come up with a good answer. One that'd satisfy her parents' curiosity. A little bit about a fire-god and some precautions it took to ensure that magic wasn't lost entirely. Something along those lines.

"Okay…" She sighed, before mumbling, "Um...something, something…...there's this fire-god somewhere out there in the multiverse, and it created Demon magic a long time ago. That type of magic is shoulder directly from that god. But it cut off Demon magic from the main dimension of magic after making it so that even if _it _was destroyed, Demon magic wouldn't be. And...that's basically it."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Moon placed her head in her hands. "Star, surely you can give us a better explanation than _that._" She groaned. "That might have been the short of it, but didn't tell me what we needed to know."

"Like…?"

"If it can be destroyed as well, how powerful it is compared to normal magic, and if it can be accessed by us. Because if we could use magic again, then I'm positive that whatever Bren throws at you and-" Moon caught herself and backtracked. "...Whatever he throws at _us _will amount to nothing if all it takes is to blow it up with a spell."

Star shook her head sadly. "It won't work. Because that's not how Demon magic works. It's more rituals and summonings and...demon stuff! We won't be able to use magic like we used to. That's gone forever. At least...I think. I'm kinda having trouble recalling everything Janna told me."

"Ah. Your little mysterious Earth friend. Of course she knew." Moon huffed. "Next time you see her Star, ask her why we weren't informed about this earlier. Because if we knew…" Moon suddenly put on this _look_, one Star hadn't seen for a long time but still recognized from somewhere. "...then it's possible Earthni could have turned into some better and empowered with that magic. Much more than it was before this whole revenge-plot started up."

"Empowered...hold on, why would we ever give magic to the public?" Star asked, unnerved by the expression her mother wore.. "And following that, why would you ever want to use magic again at all? After Mina, I thought you'd say that we should find the source of demon magic and destroy it, like we did with the last one."

"You mean the fire-god who could likely wipe the entire planet out of existence?" River commented, remembering every single word that Star had tossed at them. "If this god is the source of that magic, then I don't think that's very wise. Even _I _wouldn't think of going against something like that."

"Yes, you would." Moon and Star said simultaneously.

River was about to argue against this, but he stopped right as he opened his mouth and his gaze traveled to the floor as he grimly accepted this fact. "You're right. I'd do it in a heartbeat." He admitted. "But we have to try! Star made a good point! What if another Mina comes around? I already remember what she did to that poor man…"

"Who?" Star asked.

"Globgor." Moon deadpanned.

"Yes, Globgor!" River exclaimed. "A vegetarian, true, but still a fantastic eater and with a personality worthy of a Johansens! It's marvelous that the two of us became friends! If anything helped me permanently see monsters in a better light, it was him."

"Dad, Globgor is nothing like a Johansen." Star said. "Out of everyone I know, he might be one of the most pacifistic people around. I've only ever seen him raise a fist to protect Eclipsa or Meteora."

"Even so." River said, putting his right index finger in the air. "I think he is-"

"We can talk about that later!" Moon interrupted. "For now, we should focus on the main topic at hand. Demon magic, and what we can use it for. Star, didn't you ask me a question just now?"

"Yeah, and it was "why are you thinking like that?"" Star said, almost in a berating manner. "I get the idea behind using magic to help us beat Bren, because I'm sure with that explosion outside has got us pinned against a wall, but I don't think we should go any further than that."

"Why not?"

"Why no-because of what happened last time!" Star yelled, before doubling over and coughing again. Moon reached to grab her bowl, but Star swatted her hand away from it. "I'm _fine." _She growled. "I'm fine. But because of Mina and all that nonsense! What if someone uses it in the wrong way and it happens _again_? And even worse, I still hardly know anything about this, and so does basically everyone else besides Janna, Tom, and anyone from the Underworld. Which, may I remind you, is almost definitely under the control of you-know-who."

She glared at her mother with a look of pure disappointment. "Mom...we worked so hard and sacrificed so much in exchange for getting rid of magic. And now you, _you, _one of the people who helped cast that damn spell in the first place, want to make it _mainstream _again?!"

Moon didn't respond for a moment, shocked to silence by her daughter's furious outburst. Granted, she made several good points, but if she had only let the former Queen _explain _her plan, then she could see that it was for the better!

"Star, what we did back then...I did it out of necessity for the safety of everyone. To stop Mina. To save monsterkind, Globgor, River, your friends, everyone!" Moon enunciated. "But now that moment has passed, Mina is dead, and it's been months since that spell! Everything is in danger again so I don't see why not-"

"It's just like before." Star whispered.

"What?"

"_It's just like before." _She repeated. "You're making the exact same mistakes! Thinking like this is what caused Mina in the first place! Acting rashly and going about something too quickly because you believe it's for the greater good of the kingdom! But there isn't a kingdom anymore! We're nothing mom! We're frauds! Eclipsa is ruler, _she _should be making these decisions, you and me are nothing, and now-"

"I haven't forgotten Star!" Moon yelled, standing up and pushing her chair to the floor, causing Star to shrink back. "I still remember that we're fakes! I still remember what I did! I still remember what became of the kingdoms! I think about it every! Single! Day! But I can't keep going on like this. Yes, I hate seeing other people around. All I wanted is to be left by myself. You know it, I know it, all of my past friends know it. It's not a secret anymore."

Moon gulped and her face turned into a compassionate one. "But, with Bren and Thomas and that explosion and now _this…" _ She put her hands together and brought them to her face. "I won't stand by and watch while people die and you get hurt like this! And I want to use this Demon magic to stop it all from happening because I'm aware everything else you've tried has failed. Don't think I don't pay attention in those meetings when it suits me! The demon being sent away was because Bren wanted it. You and Marco meeting him was because he wanted it. Everything from the start is because…...because…"

"He wanted it." Star whispered, pulling her blanket up to her face. She shivered slightly (although it wasn't from the cold), as she tried to figure out what to say next. Eventually she came up with a phrase that her mother had been quite fond of saying ever since the Solarian incident. "I'm sorry. I didn't-"

"No, no, you don't have to apologize. I should be the one doing that for blowing up at you." Moon admitted, taking her chair and sitting back down in it. "I'm sorry." She breathed. "And I get what you were saying. Magic isn't what caused Mina and the destruction of that dimension and even the merging of the two worlds to happen. Me acting impetuously is. If I hadn't given Mina's army their Solarian powers, none of this would have happened. We'd still be on Mewni, Eclipsa would be reigning in a better age, and you and Marco would be happy together without having to deal with Bren."

Star took all this in and let her eyes fall to the side, knowing that what her mother said was completely true but also feeling like what was coming next was going to be another excuse for her to use Demon magic.

"But…" Moon said, confirming Star's fears. "I want to change all that now. Make up for the damage I did. And that's why I want to use this magic. To stop Bren, save Thomas, and finally maybe redeem-"

"Redeem? Is that what all this is for then?" Star sneered. "Making a name for yourself? Wanting everyone to think that you're back to plain old Moon? The boring, helpful Queen that solved all the kingdom's problems and was beloved by the people? Is...is that what you really want out of this?"

Moon flinched and could hear the sorrow in Star's voice as she asked these questions. Each one hit like a punch to the face, filled with a tone of betrayal and anger for the former Queen. Star was turning on her again, and Moon couldn't let her think about her like that any longer.

"No, Star, that's not what I want." Moon claimed. "In fact, when we win-"

"_If._" Star corrected, brushing her hair out of her face. "It's more of an "if" at this point."

"...Right." Moon said, disturbed by the lack of confidence Star just displayed. "_If _we win, regardless of whether we do it with Demon magic or not, I'll go back to living in the same house in the woods. I don't want a reward for this. I just want to make up for what I did all those months ago."

"You've had plenty of time." Star pointed out. "More than you know. But you pushed everyone away, never actually contributing to fixing the town's problems. You ran away from those meetings and left the rest to all of us. Sure, we were more than capable of handling it, but even so...you had all those opportunities, and you took none of them."

"I understand that ." Moon said. "And I regret it now. But Star, none of what you said is the truth. I'm not going to do the same things all over again. I'm not even going to have magic available to the public! I wasn't even planning on..." Moon took a deep breath and calmed herself before continuing. "I wasn't even planning on controlling magic long term. I just thought that me, you, Eclipsa, and everyone we trust could use it to stop Bren, and then _you _could use it to better the town! Look outside Star! We would never use magic for war or fighting after dealing with Bren, but instead use it only for good! Like repairing the damage that blast made or healing the injuries of-"

"This is such a cliche." Star scoffed, before clearing her throat and putting on her best Moon impression. "We're not going to use it for evil after using it for evil! We're going to use it for good and make the world a better place for everyone, where we all live happily ever after and ride away on unicorns to candyland like real life is some kind of stupid fairy tale and _not _the place where everyone you know and love is constantly threatened with getting murdered!" Star crossed her arms and glared at her mother. "That's what I'm getting out of this mom."

Moon frowned, now even more irritated with Star's stubbornness. This wasn't really like her to…

to…

Actually, scratch that, because it definitely was. She had a tendency to be stubborn in situations like this, where a decision had already been made and now someone wanted to undo that decision. But that wasn't what Moon meant! The control of magic would be heavily policed if this came to pass. It's not like _anyone _off the street could grab a magic book and use it. And assuming this Demon magic was anything like normal magic, it'd take a while to learn anyways, and even if they did, they'd certainly lack the power to do anything that couldn't immediately be fixed. Only the most trusted and skilled former magic users would be allowed to do it in the first place, so the only ones with any of those abilities would be their allies!

She had to get through to Star and explain all this. Moon was in the right here!

'Right?' She thought, having a brief moment of doubt. 'Am I acting rashly again? Jumping aboard this train too early, as the humans say? Becoming obsessed with magic and the opportunities it presents? Do I really want to use this power to save the town, or am I simply longing for the way things were, when I didn't hide out in the middle of the woods with the only daily contact to the outside world being the phone call with Eclipsa and my scouting?'

"Nothing to say anymore?" Star asked, obviously unaware of her mother's private thoughts. "Alright mom. I think that's enough from you for now." She turned towards her father. "Dad, say something already. Spark up a conversation. Do something, anything so I didn't have to listen to any more of _this._"

River, who had almost become a complete bystander at this point, looked flustered and then inched his way towards the hospital bed as his gaze shifted from side to side.. "Uh, Listen Star." He sputtered, worried that Star would get angry at him if he said the wrong thing. "I know your mother has made a lot of mistakes in the past, but I have still been living with her for the past six months, and I can say with certainty that she is not the same person she was the day magic was-"

"Yeah, but she _did_ become a recluse who pushed everyone away except for you." Star growled. "She never even wanted to see _me_! Every time I came over, I saw it in her eyes. She was waiting for me to leave the whole damn time so she could get to...whatever it is she does!" Star threw her hands up in the air again. "Actually, what _does _she even do in that house?! Sit around and wait for the end times?! Because spoilers, they're here, and now Mrs. Recluse is trying to find an excuse to go back to her old self, like I've been saying for this whole damn visit!" Star then shook her head and stared up at her father with pleading eyes. "You _have _to see that dad."

"I don't see it because it's not true!" River protested. "I know what this looks like. I understand why you're so angry. I would be too if I was thinking the same thing you were. But I'm not because then I'd be telling lies to myself Star! Throughout those six months, Moon didn't yearn for the days of magic. Not once." River pushed the chair Moon was sitting in to the side with his foot, to which the former Queen didn't even flinch in response. "But then I noticed something. Every now and then, I saw something in her. A piece that was missing that she seemed to lack. And eventually, I saw what it was."

"Yeah, _magic." _Star spat. "You-"

"No Star, it was the admiration of the people!" River blurted out. "Your mother missed the days when she could leave the castle and the Mewmans waved and smiled and praised her! _Not _the days when she left our house and most everyone ignored her. She wanted someone to care again." River sighed and took another step towards the bed. "Star, she doesn't want magic for power. She wants magic to end this threat for good and redeem herself. To prove that the old Moon is dead, and the old _old _Moon is well and truly alive!" He shouted, hoping that this would be enough to change Star's mind.

Unfortunately, her response to this boisterous claim this was to stare blankly at River, with a face that said "are you fucking kidding me?" She didn't actually _say _it, but River most definitely heard it.

"Really?" She asked. "So basically what _I _said five minutes ago? That this is all about her trying to redeem herself and better her public image? Yeah, I wasn't happy with that either dad. Try something else."

"Errr...well, it's much better than using it to take back power!" River pointed out. "Moon would never do that sort of thing now! She-"

"Both of you are wrong!" Moon suddenly screeched, almost making River jump out of his shoes and Star out of her gown. Moon glared at them both simultaneously, causing River to scooch away from her and for Star to lean as far back as she could. Now she was furious. "The main point of this is not to gain power or redeem myself. Those are secondary _at best._" She hissed. "I want to do this to stop Bren. To wipe out that little stain on Earthni's society for the good of everyone. As for afterwards, I think I could make some suggestions, _just suggestions, _about how we could use this Demon magic to better everything. I won't be in control of it at _all _after he dies, because I don't know the full capabilities of what this magic entails. Star, you said it was mostly rituals and summonings and things like that. But I-"

"It won't work." Star deadpanned.

"What?"

"Bettering the town with that magic. It won't work." She sighed and began to recount a tale. "Back when Me, Marco, Janna, and Eclipsa banished that demon, we couldn't just throw our hands in the air and send it back to the Underworld. We could only do it after we sacrificed a few things."

"Sacrifice?" River parroted. "What did you sacrifice?"

"A tennis ball, my plastic demon horns...and a vial of Marco's blood." Star enunciated.

"A vial of _what?!_"

"Blood. Marco's blood." Star repeated. "It's magic that literally originated in hell, so I think stuff like that is pretty commonplace."

"Good lord…" Moon said. "Did you seriously have to cut Marco open right there on the street-"

"No, Janna already had a vial of it." Star said. "And probably several still stored away somewhere. But that's beside the point. The point is that the ritual had to have a blood sacrifice, along with a few other things to make it work." Star tilted her head at Moon and leaned closer. "So Mom, how exactly are we going to better the town if the only way to do so is to use people's blood and personal belongings? Because that wasn't just some random tennis ball either! The criteria for what was needed was _really _specific. Not to mention personal."

"I…" Moon started, before her voice died in her throat.

"That's what I thought."'Star said, not giving her another chance to answer. "We don't. We could start a blood drive, but eventually we'll run out of things to burn. How much blood will it take? How many objects? I only learned about this stuff a few days ago, and now you know basically everything I do. But if a simple teleportation ritual took _that _much preparation, with the paint and the vial and those two objects, then who knows what's needed for something bigger. Like…" Her eyes met Moons. "Turning Earthni into something beautiful and empowered."

Moon bit her lip at Star throwing her own words back at her with disdain, and it became obvious to the former ruler that no matter how hard she tried to reason with Star, she wasn't going to agree with the plan. And she, once again, made a good point. Moon was still in the dark about most of this. Blood rituals and summonings…now that she thought about it, Star was likely to be seen in the right here by the townspeople. What would they do? Announce one day that everyone had to give up some of their blood and possessions to make everything better? _Right _after they had their homes and lives decimated? Ludicrous. There'd be another riot, if not worse. The pot was already boiling, and one more push was all it'd take for the lid to come flying off.

"So do you get it now?" Star asked. "Why your idea is a shitty one?"

Moon was about to scold Star again for her language, but decided that now was not the best time for that. She placed her hands in her lap and leaned forward again, causing Star to rear _back _again, obviously still not wanting to be anywhere near her mother.

"I think I'm starting to." She said. "But...I was telling the truth. I didn't want to do any of this for selfish reasons. Yes, I liked it better when I wasn't seen as an outcast, and yes, it'd have been nice to make amends for my past sins, but none of that was at the front of my mind! I wanted to help the town! Stop this madness and prevent more deaths."

"There's no stopping that." Star said, sounding defeated. "I have a feeling that more people are going to die in this fight no matter what we do. It's inevitable. Bren could probably level the entire town whenever he wants, and this whole thing with Avarius mansion…" She glanced at the window. "I'm sure it's only the start of what's coming. Heck, we shouldn't even be in this hospital right now. Destroying the building that has all the town's medical professionals in it, something that we're currently in short supply of?"

Star shrugged. "I couldn't think of a more perfect target. Not to mention just how _crowded _it is. If he leveled it, the death toll would rise to the thousands." She put her hand behind her head and lay flat on the bed. "But hey, at least by the end of it, there wouldn't be anybody left to riot about it."

Moon grimaced at Star's "joke", shaking her head at how unsure she seemed about all of this. Star was like a light switch right now, flipping on and off about what might happen and if they could even win this fight. This wasn't the same Star Moon had heard Eclipsa describing when the Queen first told her about Bren over the phone. Star was confident then. Sure that Bren was just another enemy to defeat that she and Marco would take down.

But, after yesterday, it was like Star had a complete change in personality. She seemed much less assured that Bren could be beaten. The beating from Marco...being put in the hospital...the explosion happening right outside her shatterproof window...it was getting to her. Making her wonder if they stood a chance. And Moon had to change that. If Star devolved to the point where she believed they'd never win, then they wouldn't. She was the most important person in all of this anyways. Bren hated her the most, and if Star lost hope then she'd be giving him exactly what he wanted. An opportunity.

This had to be taken care of now, before it got worse.

"Star." Moon said, repeating her daughter's name for the hundredth time as she took her hand in her own. "I know this is hard. I know you're angry at me. I know you're probably mourning inside for everyone that died and for what's coming next. But I also know what you're thinking."

"Then what am I thinking mom?" Star asked, tightly gripping a pillow. "Have you paid attention to a single thing I said from the past six months?"

"Every word of it."

The answer was not what Star was expecting, and she raised an eyebrow in response before pulling it back down and turning her face into a blank one. "I'm surprised." She said. "Then what did I say the last time we met? April 24?"

"You were talking about how your babysitting job with Meteora and Mariposa went surely after Meteora pounced and Marco and tried to hang him from a ceiling fan with his own hoodie." Moon said, remembering the conversation perfectly. Star perked up in surprise at the fact that her mother had managed to rescale the event so vividly, believing that she truly hadn't been paying attention.

"After that, you gave the babies their bottles and they both calmed down." Moon said. "Then you put them to bed, you and Marco had a make-out session, _which I remembered as something you clearly regretted saying, _and then Eclipsa came home and you got paid."

"..."

"Do you want me to keep going, or should I stop there?" Moon asked. "Because I think I've proven my point."

"...Okay, so maybe you were paying attention during all that." Star said. "Sorry for doubting you. It's just...like I was talking about earlier, you always made this face that told me that I was wasting and should just leave."

"If I was making a face like that, then I apologize." Moon said. "I didn't intend to do any of that."

"It's actually her normal face nowadays Star." River chimed in. "Trust me, I know which one you're talking about, and she makes it all the time! I call it her "default look". I've even seen her do it in private. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it Star. It's just the type of person your mother is now."

Star frowned. "Then why did you also _act _like you wanted me to leave?" She asked Moon. "You weren't exactly social…"

"Because I wanted to hear what you had to say." Moon replied. "I wanted to know about everything you've experienced in Earthni. How the town is doing. What it's people are doing. How it looks from the eyes of someone that's not a..." Moon was about to say "ruler", but caught herself before she inadvertently revealed her phone chats with Eclipsa. Moon actually didn't care that much if Star found out, but Eclipsa definitely would. "Someone that's not me." She finished. "It was all curiosity."

"If you were curious, then why didn't you even come to visit _me _at the Monster temple or Marco's house?" Star asked. "You could have come any time you wanted. After all those months of you avoiding us all, I'd have actually welcomed you if you wanted to come over. So why didn't you?"

"It's complicated." Moon said. "I was afraid of leaving. Afraid of interacting with people in a place that I didn't feel safe."

"Why would you not feel safe in Marco's house? You've been there before. Rafael and Angie aren't going to mind you coming over. Same with Marco. They all know what you did, but they don't care! They want to move past that. _Literally _a new world, and we all decided to bury the worst part of the old one." Star's haze turned forlorn and she chewed at her bottom lip. "Guess we couldn't stop the worst from coming back on its own though…"

"Technically, the worst from Earthni is gone now." Moon said. "What we have now is the worst from somewhere else. At least, assuming that Bren is the biggest problem from whatever dimension he came from that could cause trouble to us."

Star shuddered, utterly disturbed by the notion that there was something even more destructive than Bren lurking out there somewhere, waiting to attack. If that was true, then the entire planet, not just Earthni, was well and truly screwed.

"True, but that's not really the point, is it?" Star asked rhetorically. "You can come over to the Diazes or the Monster Temple whenever you want. I'm not going to

stop you. I'll stop anybody who tries to. What are you worried about? That someone will attack you on the street?"

"No, I'm not anxious about that. I can defend myself perfectly fine against those kinds of things." Moon claimed. "Star, I'm going to be honest, I don't truly know why I never left to go see any of you. Maybe I didn't want to go outside." (Moon knew this was a lie, her scouting missions were proof enough of that.) "Maybe I was afraid to see Eclipsa again after what I did to her, even if she forgave me." (Also a lie, due to the phone chats.) "Or maybe I didn't want to see how much the town and its people had gone on without me, like I was a forgotten piece of history." (Also a-oh screw it, who cares.) "It could be any of those, or none of them." (None.) "But the point is that I can't even figure it out myself. So no answer I give you will be satisfying, because I don't have any in the first place."

Star didn't know what to say anymore. If her mother was telling the truth, then there was no reason to get angry over it. But there _was_ still reason to-

"**BWEEEE! BWEEEE! BWEEEE!"**

With a decibel count that was far too high for a normal person to endure, a sudden ear-splitting shriek ran out over the room and the rest of the hospital, making Moon and River jump nearly a foot in the air and giving Star a mini-heart attack. The noise was absolutely deafening, before it was suddenly turned down to a level that didn't make it feel like their ears were bleeding. But it was still loud enough to make them want to get as far away from the hospital as possible. They all looked around frantically, clueless as to what was going on.

"What the hell is happening?" Moon yelled.

"I don't know!" Star yelled back. "I...I think it's some kind of emergency alarm for dangerous intruders or bomb threats or whatever! But...I don't get why would they'd sound this alarm before announcing it over the loudspeaker! Did something happen?"

A moment later one of the guards that had been standing outside the room burst in, and they all caught a glimpse of panicked and running people in the hallway, moving much faster than they had earlier.

"What's going on?" River asked.

"Someone just forced their way into the hospital!" The guard yelled. "We're evacuating everyone we can as a precaution!"

"Do we have to leave right now?" Moon asked. "What about Star?"

"Uh...that's just it." The guard said, their voice barely audible over the din. He glanced over at Star. "They say they want to see _her_, and that they'll kill anybody who gets in their way! They _already _took out the guy who called in the emergency announcement, so we had to resort to the alarm! We don't know what-"

"Wait, Marco's forced his way into the hospital to see me? And he's killed someone?!" Star screeched. "I thought he wasn't possessed anymore! What the hell happened to him now?!"

"I don't know who Marco is, but that's definitely not the intruder!" The guard hollered.

The alarm cut out suddenly, like someone flipped a switch, allowing them to no longer have to scream to communicate. The sounds from the hallway were still frantic, but definitely preferable to the blaring from above.

"Then who's here to see me?" Star asked, smacking one of her ears with her hand like she had something stuck in it.

The guard took a deep breath and a nervous look crossed their eyes. "It's...um…"

"Okay, not waiting any longer!" A familiar voice said from outside the door, and Star's heart dropped into her stomach. It swung open (burst, really), revealing the last person she wanted to see today, along with his personal pet demon. Forcefully inserting himself into the story yet again.

"Hello Butterfly." They said, while Moon and River instinctively stepped in front of Star to protect her. Star inhaled deeply through her nostrils at the sight of her worst enemy now standing in front of her. When she was at her weakest, with no escape in sight, and the only thing protecting her being her parents, who Star wasn't sure could even stop him if they tried.

"You and I are going to have a discussion...about Demon magic.."

* * *

Far away from the hospital, on the other side of town inside a darkened and cold bedroom, Marco was hurting inside.

As per usual.

However, this time the pain was different. It was constant, fixed, instead of deviating at random intervals like it usually did. Ever since yesterday this had been the norm. He had been in a state of agony throughout the evening, into the night, and now even in the morning, despite his best attempts to make it vanish. The pain wasn't physically in any way, but Marco could feel it.

But any physical pain the world could deal out was a million times better than this.

However, the fact that it was now at a resting state confused him. When it was at its changing state, the pain raised or lowered itself depending on what he was thinking about at the time. If he was thinking of Star, the pain receded. If he was thinking about literally anything else...it grew stronger. Marco was too focused on trying not to throw up from it to realize this fact, but a part of him must have caught on subconsciously, because soon enough Star was all that occupied his mind. Although it still scarcely helped overall, mostly due to the fact that while all that was happening, his five senses were screwing him over at every second no matter _what _he thought about, screaming into his ears and making him feel like he was drowning.

But had gotten a bit of rest, happy rest, when he clutched the ring Star's parents had given him to his chest and fallen into dreamland with a smile on his face. It was a nice change. He only dreamt of her. Nothing else.

And then the explosion happened.

Loud enough for his eardrums to pop and his entire room to shake. The ring fell from Marco's hand and rolled underneath a nearby dresser, unbeknownst to him. Marco's only response other than reflexively opening said hand was to widen his eyes and wonder what the hell was going on, until his windows suddenly shattered and sent broken glass flying all over the opposite wall. He heard his mother and Eclipsa scream from downstairs as something large landed on his family's car, and only then did he casually get up from his bed and look outside the window.

It took him a few seconds to discern the giant cloud of smoke rising up from what was once Avarius mansion, but once he did his mind immediately drifted back to his girlfriend, only this time with the pain rising as his anxiety made him fear that the explosion might have hurt her. Because losing Star meant losing everything. If she had gotten hurt...

Angie came flying into his room a second later, and he only had time to turn his head at her before she embraced him in a hug, overjoyed that he was unharmed. He actually returned the hug, but only for his mother's sake. With his emotions still struggling to come back to him, Marco had trouble figuring out how to return affection without Star around, and the fact that he was able to express it at all after what he went through was his most admirable quality at the moment.

After several minutes of his mother crying, as well as his father who had come in a few seconds later, they let go of him and then stared out the window as he had, inspecting the damage for the first time. Marco figured that they checked on him before actually seeing what was going on, and it made him grateful that his parents still cared so much about his well being, despite the state he was in. He had assumed they wanted nothing to do with him anymore after Angie had apparently forgotten what he said earlier about "checking in on him to make sure he hadn't killed himself."

That really hadn't helped.

But after both his parents gasped at the ghastly sight, everyone saw Eclipsa run out the front door and down the street without even saying goodbye. Marco tried to call out for her, maybe to say thanks for driving him home and for taking care of him, but Eclipsa was too far away, and his cries went unheard. Angie and Rafael _did _hear his oddly specific and heartbreaking shouts however, and took him into another hug. He returned it without thinking, and slowly started to cry, a monotone expression still plastered on his face.

He wished he could show more of it. He really could. But again, Star wasn't there, and after the pain of the god-being forcefully entering his mind again and causing that massive nosebleed, it all grew to be a little too much. His eggshell mind was once again cracking, resulting in one or two vital pieces falling off and vanishing into his subconscious. And throughout all of this, he just wished that he was with her. With Star. Was that really so hard a request?

Apparently yes, as his mother put the news on later and practically dragged him downstairs so they could all watch it together. There he discovered that hundreds of people were wounded or dead, thus making every hospital in Earthni and the surrounding towns chock-full of panicked and injured people. Including the one Star was currently contained in. After hearing this, Marco went back upstairs without bothering to tell his parents, quickly assuming that getting to Star now was an impossibility at the moment and falling deeper into the black hole that consumed his thoughts and memories.

Bad ones, of course. The only types of memories Marco sometimes felt he had left. Because even with the way some of the pain he felt went away whenever Star filled the void, it was never enough.

Then a rather nefarious thought came to his mind: Would it _ever _be enough? Was he doomed to fall into a deeper and deeper depression, uncaring about what was happening to the world just like he did with that explosion, uncaring about his own physical health unless it meant seeing her, and uncaring about the people around him, except the ones that helped him most, and even then only occasionally?

Was that his ultimate fate? All that, because of one bad day?

It certainly felt like it to Marco. Although he did try to remind himself that these things weren't fixed in a day. Mental healing from traumatizing events (of which he had so, so many, not even counting the events of yesterday) took time. Therapy didn't work in a day, or a week, or even a month. Maybe there was still help for him out there. He just had to be patient, and let people help him.

But he didn't want to. Because there was always that dark part of him that whispered poison into his ear, telling him that they didn't care deep down, that they were only doing this for their own benefit, and that he never mattered to them. And since Marco was starting to become much more open to suggestion, saving him the mental strength of having to decide things for himself, these whispers became his forethought and made the situation even worse.

He tried to fall asleep again later on. But the sounds of the still-burning town from outside combined with his own nightmares, _and _the fact that he hadn't been able to find the ring, simply made him afraid of going to sleep and potentially waking up screaming like a lunatic. He had half a mind to just muzzle himself, as he was sure that he'd have to do eventually if he didn't want to bother half the neighborhood every time he had a nightmare. Which would of course be _every _night.

So instead Marco paced around his room, played a few repetitive games on his computer, and then shut it off so his parents would think he was snoozing when he heard them come upstairs. They were whispering to each other. About him. About what they could do to help him. He even thought he heard Angie mention that they had somehow "failed as parents" since they allowed him to get killed and fall into his whole tortured mind state. Rafael tried to console her, but Marco knew from the tone in his voice that he thought something similar. Both of them started crying, so Marco grabbed a pillow and placed it over his head to drown it out. He hated it. He hated the fact that his parents had to go through this because of his bullshit.

But it wasn't like he could help it. He knew that pretending that everything was okay and that he wasn't hurting inside might only make things worse, so Marco didn't bother doing any of that. He may be hiding from people, but that didn't mean he was going to hide how messed-up he felt. And besides, even if he tried, they'd figure it out eventually.

After his parents retreated back to their room, Marco started playing his game again, but shut it off after the light began to hurt his eyes. He groaned, practiced a few karate moves for the billionth time, and unsuccessfully tried to go to bed, not caring anymore about his nightmares. He just wanted to shut out the rest of the world, and if half the neighborhood had to be woken up in order for this to happen, then so be it.. And it's not like he could stay awake forever.

It didn't work.

He started grumbling and moved to Star's room instead, sick of staring at the same four boring old walls in the almost slapped himself for not thinking of doing this before. It reminded him of her. It smelled like her. And it almost _looked _like her, in a way. Seeing and smelling and feeling all that...

It helped.

He laid himself down on her bed, imagining that she was there, next to him, and not in a crowded hospital, likely feeling as love-starved as he did and bored out of her mind. But the image of Star like that, laying in her hospital bed overtook all other thoughts, and…

It didn't help.

Marco rolled off the bed and walked over to Star's balcony as his brain began to betray him again. The sun was starting to vanish over the horizon and the sky was turning a beautiful orange in response. But most of the orange, unfortunately, was covered by the smoke. But Marco pretended they weren't there. He pretended that he didn't hear the far off screams in the distance, people trapped underneath buildings, their rescuers too busy to help them at the moment. He pretended that one of the stones that made up the mansion wasn't currently on top of his family's car, which for some reason had dried blood stains covering one side. And most importantly, he pretended that none of this mattered, that the entire town would go back to normal in the morning, with no memory or recollection of what had occurred.

None of that was true obviously, but it helped in the moment. Made him feel better. Soon he had drowned it all out, knowing that the sounds had to return eventually but not caring in the moment, all the while he gripped the balcony's railing so tightly his knuckles had turned white.

He knew what he'd do the next day. Find some way to get into the hospital and see Star. It didn't matter if his parents didn't want him too. It didn't matter if the doctors wouldn't let him. He'd sneak in and see her, and that was final.

He straightened himself, walked away from the balcony, and clambered back into Star's bed, getting under the covers and wrapping her blanket around him.

It helped.

And a short while later, he thought he heard Ponyhead screaming in the distance, along with what sounded like the footsteps of several dozen angry people, interrupting his beauty sleep.

That...didn't help.

* * *

"Helloooooo?! Anybody home?! I need to speak with your boss!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Okay, I know you can hear me, and you have _five minutes _until I break this door down with my horn! And after that, everyone is going to feel the wrath of Ponyhead!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"DAMN IT OPEN THIS DOOR I NEED TO SPEAK WITH YOU!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Ponyhead was having a very bad day.

Although that's stating the obvious. Because everyone is having a pretty shitty day right now, yes?

Yes. But according to Ponyhead, her day had gone much worse than most people's, to the point where she claimed that it had become borderline asinine to her father. (Who didn't care.)

First things first, she got no sleep last night, much like all the rest. But _unlike _the rest, she kept on trying throughout the night, while the other Royals just stayed up the whole time, sitting and worrying. So by the time the sun creeped through her windows, it was apparent to Ponyhead that her attempts had been futile, leading her to trash her room in a fit of rage, cursing the people outside who had prevented her from sleeping.

And it's not like things got any better from there.

Three of her sisters hadn't come home the night before, and so she and the rest of her siblings had been sent out (forced) by their father to go look for them. And while all the others were crying and sobbing over the fact that three members of their family might have died, Ponyhead was grumbling about it the whole time while live-streaming the search on her phone. At no point did she have any viewers, but Ponyhead still did it anyways for "public image." Her three missing sisters were later found, trapped underneath some rubble covered in scratches and bruises, but otherwise unharmed. It was an absolute miracle, and it was clear to see that Ponyhead couldn't care less.

Then just as she was about to go back to her castle (she no longer called it _the _castle, only _hers_, due to the fact that she was going to be of age to take up the ruling position in a few years or so), the entire group got a simultaneous text message from their father, who said that all of them had to come home _except _for Ponyhead, who was to report to an emergency Council meeting. Groaning, whining, and loudly complaining for the second time that morning, Ponyhead flew towards the meeting at 1 kilometer per hour, acting like she was carrying a hundred-kilogram weight on her back.

And at the meeting, things just got shittier for her. She discovered that her best friend was in the hospital because of Earthturd, Earthni was likely all alone in dealing with the Bren problem, and Eclipsa had cruelly and unjustly cancelled her show.

Which led us to where she is now. Floating in front of Echo creek's television studio, responsible for all broadcasts. Sports, cartoons, news, whatever. The same studio that controlled Ponyhead's show. Right now they were airing a 24/7 news broadcast about the disaster that had befallen them all, so Ponyhead was of course the least of their concerns.

"OPEN UP!" She repeated, unsuccessfully trying to pick the front door lock with her horn. She knew they were ignoring her, and didn't care. She was getting in this television studio one way or another, and if she had to break down this door to accomplish that, then so be it.

"OKAY. YOU ASKED FOR IT!" She yelled, and without skipping a beat, Ponyhead floated backwards and charged forward with her horn, bellowing a war cry as she flew straight into the bulletproof glass that surrounded the studio, which had been installed a few months earlier due to scared monsters attacking it after finding out the structure was the source of the "magic moving pictures" that they claimed "haunted their nightmares."

All this was unbeknownst to the still-advancing Ponyhead, and with a loud _CRACK, _her horn snapped in half like a twig as the glass deflected the blow, causing the front of her nose to smack into the pane along with most of the right side of her face. Ponyhead dropped like a rock, smacking against the sidewalk. She moaned groggily and wondered why what she believed to be a brilliant plan had gone so poorly.

"Ugh...what the hell?!" She exclaimed. "Why did that not work? What's going on with that damn glass? And-hey, why does my horn feel weird?"

Ponyhead glanced skyward and saw her ruined horn, the broken half hanging off it like a piece of string. Meanwhile, the half that was still attached to her head was now embedded with deep cracks, which were growing larger by the second. Ponyhead let out a gasp as her voice died in her throat, and she floated upward and inspected the damage in front of the glass, just as the broken half fell off entirely and clattered to the pavement below.

"NO! NO AGAIN!" She wailed. "OH, THAT IS IT! FIRST MY STUPID MISSING SISTERS WASTE ALL MY TIME, THEN THAT ANNOYING MONSTER QUEEN TELLS ME SHE'S GOING TO CANCEL MY SHOW, AND NOW THIS?! THIS IS EASILY THE WORST DAY ANYONE HAD EVER HAD IN THE HISTORY OF THIS STUPID TOWN!"

"Hey. You."

"I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS ANY LONGER! SOMEONE IS GOING TO PAY FOR THIS, AND I'M GOING TO MAKE SURE THAT THEIR LIVES ARE RUINED BECAUSE OF IT!"

"Hey!"

"PROBABLY EARTHTURD. THIS IS ALL HIS FAULT ANYWAYS. I TOLD THEM LAST MEETING THAT HE MIGHT BE WORKING FOR BREN, AND NOW LOOK WHERE WE ARE. HE GOT HIMSELF POSSESSED. AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO-"

"HEY!"

"Huh?" Ponyhead whipped her neck around at the sound of the obviously irritated voice, and standing in front of her was a random middle-aged human, which she recognized as the desk attendant for the studio. She put on a scowl and spoke in a tone of pure disdain. "Oh. It's _you." _She growled, gritting her teeth and identifying them from her earlier visits. "What do you want? I'm in the middle of something."

"What do _I _want? What are _you _doing?" The human asked, glaring at Ponyhead like she was nothing more than a nuisance.

"Well, I've been _trying _to get into your stupid studio, that's what I've been doing!" Ponyhead yelled, getting in their face. "For like...the past twenty minutes now! And look at the result! This is all the fault of that stupid window you installed!" She motioned her nose towards the ground, and the human gazed downwards and saw the snapped horn, lying on the sidewalk like a piece of litter. They then spotted Ponyhead's broken horn and connected the dots, although they didn't bother showing sympathy.

"Well, that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't tried to break in." They pointed out. "Why didn't you just open the front door? It's unlocked you know."

Ponyhead made a noise that was a mix between a squeal and a cry of pain, like someone had stabbed her with a knife. "Door?!" She exclaimed. "I don't have any hands you idiot! How do you expect me to open a door!"

"Use your mouth?" The human suggested.

"What, you want me to put my mouth on that thing? No thanks." Ponyhead seethed. "It's probably covered in who knows how many different types of Earth germs and diseases. I wouldn't even let my sister's touch that-hm, actually no, that's not true." She said, always searching for an opportunity to get back at her sisters. "But there was no way I was going near that. So then I tried to break in, and now my horn's broken! Why does this place even need that type of glass anyway?! What are you defending it against?!"

"Hundreds of scared and angry monsters, complaining about "magic moving pictures."" The human deadpanned. "It was a precaution we had to take."

"Is that so?" Ponyhead hissed at them. "Well, your "precaution" cost me my horn! I want to know what you're going to do about this!"

"Uh, nothing?" The human guessed. "I can promise you that the studio won't care. I don't either. Especially since we just got the order a few minutes ago to cancel your show, so there's really nothing you can do. And if you try to sue us over the horn…" The human pointed to a security camera hanging overhead, which had recorded everything. "That footage will clearly display that you were the only one at fault here."

Ponyhead growled again but did her best to calm herself down. As pissed off as she was about the horn, it could be dealt with later. She was here for her show after all, and Eclipsa had apparently _just _called them and had it cancelled. She had to try and convince them to undo that action. Bribery, perhaps...

"Okay, you know what, forget that for now. I'm here for something else anyways." Ponyhead stated, making the human tilt their head at her in surprise. "I'm here to uncancel my show. I don't care what Eclipsa said to you on that phone call or text or whatever she used, but I have better judgement, and I can say that-"

"Queen Eclipsa didn't tell us to do anything." The human said, staring at Ponyhead like she had a few screws loose, if not all of them.

"Huh?"

"It was King Ponyhead." The human revealed. "He called us a few minutes ago and ordered us to shut it down. And since he has authority much higher than yours, we did what he asked us. Plus, we wanted to get rid of it anyway. It was taking up valuable broadcasting time. I don't think we had a single viewer over the past couple of days…"

"Wha-my _dad _did this?!" Ponyhead shrieked. "Are you kidding me?! Why would he do that to me?! He loves me! More than my other sisters and everyone else in the entire world! When I find him, I am going to make him bring my show back with a marathon of all the old episodes and-"

"That's not possible."

"Not possible? What do you mean?!" Ponyhead asked.

"When we took your show off the air, we also deleted all the old episodes we had to clear some space. Not to mention the fact that your dad made us promise to never air it again, no matter what you said. He promised a very large sum of money if we complied, although I don't know how he's going to do that, considering we're all out of money, but whatever. Long story short, we don't have any episodes, and your show will never air on this network ever again."

"..."

"..."

"Move." Ponyhead ordered.

"What?"

"Get out of my way!" She screeched. "I want to speak to your boss about this, since I assume he's the one who got that phone call! I'm not leaving until I get my show back!"

"The boss can't speak to you right now. Heck, I shouldn't be talking to you either. We're all working full time right now to get the news out there, and I actually have a job to do right now. Goodbye."

They turned to leave, but Ponyhead shook her head and flew directly in front of them, her face now so close to theirs that their noses were almost touching. "We're not done yet!" She snarled. "I don't care if you have a job to do. I have something _I _came here to do, and I'm not leaving until I'm satisfied! And why is the news so important right now anyways! Everyone in town knows what happened! Is the news the main source of revenue now or what?"

The desk attendant made a face that showed they were struggling to not choke Ponyhead out right then and there. They grabbed what remained of her horn and casually threw her behind them in one swift motion, resulting in her hitting a street pole face-first and denting it in the process. She fell to the ground again, a few broken teeth falling out of her mouth. Ponyhead moaned and glanced upwards as the attendant approached and looked over her, looking at her like one might look at a literal pile of garbage.

"It's important because an estimated _five percent _of the town's population just died, and the outside world needs to know what happened here!" They exploded, refusing to tolerate her antics for any longer. "And we're still broadcasting it because people are _still _dying! It'll probably be closer to ten percent by the time all the bodies are counted up and everyone with a fatal wound succumbs to it. And we're the ones responsible for getting it out there. Everyone inside is busting their asses to get as much information to the people as fast as possible. I'm not even a desk attendant anymore! I'm working the cameras because one of the people who usually does is missing, probably caught in the blast and reduced to a pile of ash, and I have to say, after everything I heard you say right now, it's a real shame that _you _didn't take their place."

With that, the former desk attendant went back inside the building, slamming and locking the door behind them. Ponyhead gaped at this sight, shocked at the way she had just been treated. She felt the urge to attack the glass with her horn again rising, but stopped herself as she knew it would only serve to hurt her further. Instead she shook in place with fury, before flying up high in the sky as if to get a view of the whole town.

"LISTEN TO ME, ALL OF YOU!" She announced, cashing several nearby people to turn and look at her. "YOU ALL HAVE TO HELP ME! THIS TOWN NOW HAD A NEW CRISIS, AND I NEED YOUR HELP TO FIX IT! WE-"

"No shit it's in crisis!" Somebody on the street interjected, pushing a wheelbarrow full of bits of rubble and burned clothes. "Thanks for pointing out the obvious! And what do you think we've been doing all morning? We've been trying to help out! Why are you telling us to start now?"

"I'm not talking about the damages from that explosion!" Ponyhead enunciated. "You people are being plagued by the news in this town!"

"The _news_?"

"Yes, the news! They are greedy and lazy and aren't doing anything for anyone!" Ponyhead yelled, hoping to rile up the people on the street as much as possible. "I mean, just look! You guys are down there, picking up buildings and bodies, and _they're _sitting inside their fancy building, in their comfort chairs, and doing nothing but wasting everyone's time!"

"No…" Somebody said, putting their shovel in the ground and glaring at her. "They're reporting everything that's happening. I was up watching it all night at the town community center." They pointed towards the news building. "It's chaos in there! Even in the background, you could hear an ungodly amount of yelling. Sure, they might not be out here, but they're doing their fair share of work. Why did you think they're being lazy?"

"Uh…" Ponyhead stuttered, discovering that things were no longer going to plan. "Because I...snuck in! Yes! I snuck in earlier and saw that it was all just a ruse so you all would _think _that they were working! I even took a video!" She claimed, before immediately regretting it.

"Show us the video." Someone demanded.

"I...can't. They stole my phone." Ponyhead lied. "But trust me, I-"

"You're lying!" The person with the wheelbarrow spat at her. "You never snuck in! I saw you just a second ago, trying to _break _in! Then someone came out and yelled at you for a bit before going back inside! You haven't done anything! In fact, what are _you _doing to help besides serving your own self-interests?!"

"I've done plenty!" Ponyhead countered. "Earlier this morning, I helped look for my three sisters who went missing. I led the group that was searching for them and I found them myself, buried under-"

"That's also a lie!" Someone carrying a large shovel shouted. "I saw that group earlier, all those flying unicorn heads, and I remember _you _at the back of it, grumbling to yourself, and typing on that stupid little phone of yours with your teeth! And when I asked your group if you needed any help, you flew up to me and told me to scram before any of the others could respond!"

"Hmm, I don't remember doing that." Ponyhead said, actually being truthful for the first time since she arrived. "And also, if you knew who I was all along, why did you wait until now to speak up about it?"

The person carrying the shovel smiled slightly. "I was waiting until you started claiming that you did all the work, as I was sure you would." They said, pointing their tool at her in an almost accusatory manner.. I'm good at reading people that way. Or in this case...mistakes."

"Okay, I did make a bit of a mistake and exaggerated it a bit." Ponyhead admitted, not fully understanding that it was supposed to be an insult. "But I still _helped, _isn't that good enough?"

"No." Everyone in earshot said.

Ponyhead huffed. "Well screw all of you!" She yelled, flipping out her phone. "I'm going to sneak in for real and get some footage, and you'll see why those newshacks are a detriment to socie-"

"Hey! Didn't you say you left that thing at your house?" One of the bystanders asked.

"Ummm…well, here's the thing about that" Ponyhead started, cursing herself internally for forgetting she had mentioned that. "...that was also a total lie. But that doesn't matter. Trust me, I'm going to go in so that all of you can see the truth. I know that's what you humans like to do, finding out the truth and stuff. I think that-"

"Everyone of us are _Mewmans._" The one with the shovel growled, now looking ready to smack Ponyhead in the face with it. "Just because this is the human section of town doesn't mean we don't want to help clean it up. All of it is still Earthni. It doesn't matter what species you are, we're in the same boat you specist little shit...

"Oh. Okay. Then why are you all wearing Earth clothes?" Ponyhead asked, not caring a bit about their reasoning for being here.

"Because they were dirt-cheap and it's all we can afford."

"_That's _all you can afford? Every single one of you?" Ponyhead chuckled and they glowered at her. "Wow, either I came to the wrong part of town, or all the plebeians are coming out of their huts at the same time…"

"What did you just call us?!"

"Um, nothing! Gotta go!" Ponyhead yelled, sensing that now would be the best time to leave. She turned and started floating away in a hurry, no longer worried about the "newshacks" or the fate of her show.

All the people working on the street exchanged glances and then ran after her, tools high in the air like torches while they screamed in outrage. Ponyhead let out a shriek of her own after seeing what was following her and flew away faster, but just barely managed to stay out of their clutches all the while.

And eventually the chase led them all the way down to Marco's house, who groaned in agony after being disturbed by the rampaging mob…

**End chapter 21**

**A/N: Well, a few things happened. Star and Moon are once again on arguing terms, everything about Marco's life still sucks, and Ponyhead is annoying everyone. You know who has inserted himself into other people's affairs to ruin things again, but he's not there to fight. Although that won't stop a king named after a certain body of water from trying to initiate one…**

**I hope the whole hospital scene was written well, especially the Moon and Star interaction. They had a lot to talk about. Most of it bad. And if anyone is confused about the title, just look up"code grey hospital" for an explanation.**

**Until next time.**


	23. Chapter 22: Two Halves and a Whole

**Aflame **

**Chapter 22**

**Two halves and a Whole  
**

"I want to see her!"

"Sir, please, I'm not able to help you. We've already gone over this, and I can't let you in to see your wife."

"Why not?! Those two Mewmans just went into the hospital a few minutes ago to see their daughter! And they had an _escort! _Why can't I see my wife?"

"Because their daughter is a patient who's still _alive."_ The Desk Attendant growled. (You know which one) They rubbed their temple and clicked the pen they were holding a few dozen times in a row, the only thing at the moment that was preventing them from stabbing themselves in the eye with it. "So sir, please sit back down. People whose family members are currently deceased do not take priority. Not at a time like this."

The man they were talking to trembled, both out of sadness and anger. "I'm not going anywhere until I-"

"Security!" The Desk Attendant yelled, and immediately a guard showed up out of nowhere and grabbed the man's shoulder. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to sit back down, or I'll have to forcefully escort you off the premises." He said, speaking with a no-nonsense attitude. "Which is it going to be?"

The man looked from the guard to the Attendant and then clenched his fists. "Neither!" He yelled, and reached for the Attendant's throat. They leaned back in shock just as the guard responded by landing a punch in the man's gut and then the side of his head. and then grabbing his collar. They then grabbed him by the collar before dragging him off towards the front door, but not before he loudly expressed his frustration for the last time.

"Let me see her!" He sobbed. "Let me see her! She's all I've got left! She-" But by then, it was too late, and the Guard and the man were out the door, his cries rendered inaudible.

A brief silence fell over the lobby until the chatter slowly returned at a leisurely rate, and the Attendant sighed again and placed their forehead on their desk. They really hated themselves right now. Mostly for having to do that. Sending that guy away when all he wanted was to see the body of his wife. Their heart would have been beyond broken, if it hadn't already been shattered into a thousand...ish pieces a few hours ago. Because incidents like this were pretty commonplace at the moment. Things seemed to have died down after the crowd saw over twenty people getting dragged outside by the same guard, who was the toughest one the hospital could find. He was actually a retired knight for the Jaggy Kingdom, and was wearing his full set of armor. They had employed him last night to deal with this kind of thing. Unfortunately, that also meant that the hospital would have to pay him a...substantial amount of money once this was all over.

But each one of those people was identical in personality. Angry, sad, and mourning all at the same time, demanding to see the mangled corpses of their friends or family. But like the Attendant said, the ones who were related to living patients were the first to go. There was a literal line now, and the range of emotion from the front end to the back varied greatly.

So after repeatedly slamming their head against the desk, the Attendant looked up to see the Knight coming back inside, a grim expression on his face and a small amount of blood on his fists. Obviously, the man took a great exception to being forced out, and special measures had to be taken. _Again._ Normally the Attendant would have given the Knight a swift reprimanding, as they were trying to _help _patients, not create more. But after five reprimands in a row, they didn't bother. They just let the Knight do his thing.

Because what would they do? Fire him? If he wasn't here restoring order when needed, then the entire lobby might collapse into chaos. Dozens of people were there, each of them pissed off to the extreme. Mumbling about how "the Royals" got special privileges and got to see their daughter before the rest of them.

But in reality, the only reason they got to see her early was because the Knight mentioned to a doctor that he wasn't going to fight any of _that _once King River strolled in, and he promptly left the area until the Johansen had disappeared. So mostly they were just terrified of River. And if his rage was anything like Star's, a phenomenon that quite a few doctors got to witness the day before, then none of them would stand a chance if he started throwing a fit.

However, the Attendant could care less about their complaints. Because it was time for them to sit down and finally do their damn job: Filling our pieces of papers that no one will ever look at, spare a quick glance or two. But hey, they still got paid, and at a time like this, that was an exclusive right.

So they got right back to it, and grabbed a sheet off one of the stacks. This one was another visitor form. Something something wounded knee...something something have to amputate...something something...blood. That's all they got out of it, which frankly was more than a good deal of the other forms. They bit their tongue and put pen to paper, their movements almost robotic in nature as they scribbled down the necessary information.

Then the automatic doors slid open as yet another person entered the hospital, and they didn't even turn to look.

'Whoopee.' They thought. 'Who is it this time? A person we kicked out earlier? Another patient? More Royals? Oh, please be the second option.'

Whatever the answer, they'd have to deal with it. The Attendant didn't even notice that the lobby had gone completely silent as the newcomer walked over to the desk and rested their elbows on it. They didn't even move their head up but instead kept working on the form, mentally preparing themselves to get yelled at later about it. They had learned how to multitask quite efficiently in the past twelve hours, and they'd rather be on clean-up duty than put such a skill to waste.

"Can I help you?" They asked.

"I'm here for a patient." The newcomer said. Low. Male. Young, but not that young. Probably another teenager. The Attendant made a "pft" sound and moved their fingers to the computer sitting to their right, eyes now focused on the screen.

"What's the patient's name?"

"Star Butterfly."

They didn't even flinch at another mention of that dreaded name. Was this that Marco kid that came back to life yesterday? Didn't sound like it, but it was the most likely possibility. But they were too tired to even look up and check, so they typed it into the system without hesitation.

"Are you here with a parent or guardian?" The Attendant asked, able to easily tell from their voice that whoever this was was definitely not old enough to be wandering around by themselves.

"I mean...depends on what you mean by guardian." The newcomer said, before sounding like they shrugged. "Yes. Just type in yes."

"Okay then...now what's your name?"

"...Bren. And that's it. I don't have a family name."

The Attendant soullessly started to type that in, but their finger stopped and hovered just over the "e" button as what they had just been told registered in their brain. Did they really just say…?

Their gaze drifted upwards and their eyes met the newcomers, one fiery orange and the other a murky brown. A choking sound was suddenly heard from the Attendant's throat as they recognized the face from the wanted poster hanging from the opposite wall. The same person who had caused so many people to get sent to this hospital was now casually standing in its lobby, a lobby that the Attendant just noticed had gone quiet.

"Hmm...are you okay?" Bren asked, tilting his head. "You sound like you're choking on something."

"I...I'm f-fine." The Attendant gasped out, now hyperventilating and doing their best not to show it. "Uh...how...can...I...uh...I…" They sputtered, coherent speech now an impossibility due to the raw fear that was coursing through them. They glanced to the left, where a demon-esque teenager was standing, looking grim. They gulped and forced their hand to move back to the keyboard, praying to anyone that was listening that they'd survive this little encounter.

"You're going to have to repeat that." Bren sighed, leaning in and cupping a hand over his ear. "I can't hear...well, I can, but you're not making any sense."

"How...can I help you?" The Attendant repeated, putting on their best customer smile despite the fact that they were screaming inside. (Years of retail before this job had prepared them for this moment.)

"You already asked that." Bren pointed out, before groaning. "I should have known coming here like this was a bad idea. Try to have some fun maybe, freak everyone out…" He surveyed the room, where every single person was clinging to the far wall, trying to get away from him any way they could. Even the Knight stood frozen in place, thanks to a death glare that Tom had given him the second they walked in.

"Figured that the panic would be a lot more...vocal." Bren said, obviously disappointed with the reaction he was getting. "Ah well. Maybe I can change that later..."

He then focused his attention back on the Attendant, who had been subconsciously holding their breath the entire time. "Okay. Where is she?"

"W-who?"

Bren facepalmed. "_Butterfly." _He enunciated. "The person I just mentioned? Just asked about? What room is she in?"

"Um...before I tell you, could I ask what exactly you plan to do?" The Attendant asked, wishing they could crawl in a hole and hide.

"Oh, me and her and gonna have a _talk, _that's all.._." _Bren declared. "Star knows a few things that could really bother me down the line, so I have to remind her not to try too hard. Even though I…told her and her boyfriend at the beginning to try as hard as she could. I'm starting to regret that now."

"That...sounds kind of hypocritical." The Attendant pointed out, and then immediately regretted saying it.

"True." Bren agreed. "But after Marco nearly killed me back at the Sanctuary, I found out that I probably shouldn't be giving them that many chances, so I'm changing things up a bit."

"..."

"But I'm not here to talk about that." Bren said. "So I'm going to ask again. Where is she?"

"I…" The Attendant sucked their breath and prepared to do what they considered to be the bravest/stupidest action of their entire life. They hated this job with every ounce of their being, but reason overcame fear as they made a choice to potentially save a life at the cost of their own.

And if she actually _helped _Bren, then the odds were that everyone in the lobby would tear them apart the second he left.

"I can't tell you." They said.

"Oh? And why's that?" Bren asked. "Do you not have the room number? Wouldn't be surprising if they wanted to keep it a secret, all things considere-"

"That's not it." The Attendant said. "I'm not allowed to give away the location of patients if I believe their visitors have hostile intent towards them. And...I'm sure you do, so I'm sorry...sir, but I can't give you the patient's location."

"...What?" Bren spat, before placing both his hands on the desk and grinning widely. "Sorry, I don't think I heard that correctly. Would you be so kind as to repeat what you said to me?"

"I…"

"Yes?"

"I...am not allowed to give you-"

"Not _that." _Bren scoffed. "What did you call me during that nonsense?"

"Um...sir?" The Attendant said, now slightly more confused than brave/stupid/terrified.

"Eugh." Bren gagged dramatically, his entire body tensing up. "Please don't call me that again."

"Is...is there a particular reason why-"

"None of your business." Bren mumbled. "Now, I believe you mentioned something about how you can't tell me because you think I'll hurt Butterfly, correct?"

"Y-yes. That's correct. It's required by law."

"Okay, but I doubt _you _listened to a word I said before that?" Bren asked. "Because I literally told you that I only wanted to talk to her, and nothing else. If _she _tries to attack me, then sure, I'll retaliate, but other than that, she'll be fine."

"I'm sorry, but I still can't tell you."

Bren's smile faded from his face and he leaned even closer. "Well. Then we're going to have a problem aren't we?"

The Attendant felt their heart drop to their stomach. This was it. This was how they died. Not in a car accident, not being attacked by some psycho patient, but this. Murdered by some psycho _teenager_ with white hair, mismatched eyes, and who just blew up half the town. For a brief moment, the Attendant wondered _why _they were so afraid of him, considering his extremely unimposing appearance. (The fact that he might carry some kind of infectious disease due to how screwed up his eyes were was the most frightening thing about him honestly.) Why were they so scared? Because of his demon bodyguard?

'No.' They thought. 'No, that wasn't it. I was already petrified before I even realized that thing was there. So is there...no real reason?' They pondered 'Am I scared simply because he's the one who blew up that mansion?' The Attendant almost growled as they realized exactly what they had been scared of this whole time. 'Okay. This is ridiculous! Look at this guy! He's just some stupid teenager! There's...there's no reason I should be afraid! He has no...visible weapons. All he has is a reputation.'

Once this sudden realization set in, the Attendant scowled and glanced over at the Knight, who, like everyone else, stood frozen in place. "You!" They yelled, causing everyone to look at the Mewman. The Attendant then pointed at Bren. "Do your job! Take him out right now! The enemy is standing in front of you! He's not armed! All he has is one guard! Do your damn job! Do what we're paying you for!"

After all this had been said, there was a mixed reaction amongst the collective crowd. The Knight glared at the Attendant furiously, Tom bit his lip, sensing that something bad was about to happen, Bren facepalmed again and let out an annoyed groan, and everyone else inched further away from the pair, getting a feeling that they were still in the splash zone.

"Really?" Bren asked. "Do you seriously just-fine." He scoffed. "You know what, fine. Send your brave Knight to stop me." He turned towards said Knight, who was still seething at the Attendant for getting him directly involved in all of this. "Come on then." Bren said with a bored tone. "Try and stop me or arrest me, or...whatever. I promise that Tom will make it quick, because I have things to do and don't want to waste the time."

"I'm not going to attack you." The Knight deadpanned.

"...Oh. Well good." Bren said, visibly surprised. "I'm glad to see that at least one of you had some sense, _unlike…" _He turned and glowered at the Attendant. "...this one over here. But-"

"No, I'm not finished talking." The Knight said.

"Oh, goddamn it." Bren muttered. "What? What now?"

"I said I wasn't going to attack _you_." The Knight said, taking a small step forward.

"Yeah, and?"

"I never said anything about not attacking your friend. Now that I have been dragged into this, I suppose I now have no other choice but to interfere."

"What? Friend?" Bren chuckled. "What the hell are you-" His eyes drifted over to Tom. "Ah. I see what you were trying to say. You really should have worded that a little better. Even Tom would agree that we're nothing close to-"

Before Bren could go any further, the Knight took advantage of his distracted state and shot forward with incredible speed, moving faster than anyone thought possible. Tom hardly had any time to react before the old man was on top of him, and was in such shock by the sudden movement that he felt like his muscles had become that of a statue. The Knight reached out and grabbed his head, his palm so large that it encompassed his entire face. Without hesitating for a second, he lifted the demon in the air and then flung him into a nearby wall, shattering plaster and leaving a giant Tom-shaped hole in the process, like something out of a cartoon.

As the entire room stared in shock at what they just witnessed, Bren simply stared at the wall cutout for a second, fully expecting his demon to jump out and retaliate, but his expectations were ruined as the only response Tom gave after this was a soft groan of pain, muffled under a quarter ton of plaster. Bren shook his head and let out a disappointed humming noise upon realizing that whatever injuries Tom received from that _one blow_ had somehow taken him off the board, and now he was the only piece standing.

"Really Lucitor?" He asked. "That's all it took? Him throwing you into a wall? Stop making yourself look bad and crawl out of there."

"Auuuuughh…" Tom moaned groggily. "Dad? Is that you? Make the room stop spinning...and get rid of all these flying demons. They're making me dizzy…"

'Oh. Hallucinations. Well, that's just fantastic.' Bren thought. 'I'd chide him for talking out of turn right now, but I don't think he even knows where he is." He shrugged. "Ah well, I'll deal with that later. Not like I can't take these assholes on by myself…"

"Your turn." The Knight said, making a Bren snap back to attention. "I don't care if you look like a weakling. You're going to pay in full for what you did to this town and it's people."

"Aren't you retired?" Bren asked casually. "Why are you here guarding this shit-hole instead of lazing around at home?"

The Knight was clearly taken aback by this response, having expected a plea for mercy or at least an escape attempt. "I...they asked for my help, and promised to pay me." The Knight said, before his gaze darkened. "Also, I heard about what happened to my fellow knights. About how they all perished in the mansion explosion. So I wanted to do something. To at least help out. Show them that I haven't given up, even after their deaths."

"If it makes you feel better, they were never my original target. That was Lord Brudo." Bren said. "They were just in the way, along with everyone else. Sure, it was nice to get rid of them, won't cause any problems for me down the line, but...yeah. I didn't care about them in the slightest."

The Knight shook with rage, infuriated at this reveal. He had thought that his fellow knights had been considered a major threat after they assisted in taking down the demon. That Bren took them out because he thought of them as a hindrance to his plans. But now he discovered that they were never even regarded as a threat to his plans. His fellow comrades had been deemed as little more than trash by this interloper. Such disrespect was a crime that the Knight could not allow to go unpunished. "You mock them." He growled. "Even in death?"

"I believe that's where a good deal of the mocking towards a person takes place."

"Well, not to the knights of Mewni!" The Knight exclaimed. "When a Knight dies, they are not mocked by their fellow warriors. They are treated with respect, because they died on the battlefield and did their duty to the Kingdom. We treat their bodies with the highest esteem, and give them a grand funeral in their honor."

"Wow, that's _really _interesting and all…" Bren said sarcastically. "But is it a bad time to point out that your friend _didn't_ die on a battlefield? Or accomplish any kind of duty to the "Kingdom" in the process? They died entirely in vain. Any sane person wouldn't see their deaths as good ones. Hell, there weren't even any bodies _left_ to bury. Not much available for you to treat with your "highest esteem"."

After this poison left Bren's mouth, the Knight struggled to resist the urge to simply grab him and hurl him at a nearby wall like he did to Tom. (Who was still partially unconscious). Frankly, he would have loved to do it earlier, preferably the second he set his sights on Bren, but the Knight knew better than anyone that a battle like that would be unfair. He figured Bren didn't have much going for him in the combat department. Why else would he need that bodyguard?

Even if Bren was a villain, and a _true _monster, he still deserved the privilege of an honorable fight. Even in a rather…odd arena.

But as for the "fight" with the said bodyguard, he considered this to be fair due to the fact that he was literally going up against the Prince of the Underworld, who had for some reason gone down after only one blow. (Even the Knight was surprised by how easily he was defeated.) So the old man preferred to give Bren a chance to win, even if he didn't have one.

"Enough of this." The Knight said. "You can make fun of my fallen comrades all day long, but it won't accomplish a damn thing."

"I agree." Bren said, nodding. "That's what I think It'd be in everyone's best interests if _they…" _He pointed to the Attendant, who was still staring wide-eyed at the Tom-shaped hole. "...Simply told me where Butterfly is, so we can move this along a little faster. Then I can leave, you can go back to doing...this useless job of yours, and that'll be the end of it. Pretty good deal, yeah?"

"No."

"Son of a...okay, what do we have to do to keep this moving?" Bren asked, rubbing his eyes. "Should we fight now and get it over with?"

"That _would _be the process of events." The Knight said. "However, while normally I'd strike first against an opponent, as I did with your friend…"

Bren reflexively bit his lip so hard it drew blood, fed up with all the misunderstandings. "For the second time, that little demon slave is not my fucking _frien-_"

"But with you things will be going differently!" The Knight interrupted. "Because you are not a proper opponent. The mastermind of everything bad that has befallen this town, yes, but not a warrior. I can tell just by looking at you! You are a user of brains, not brawn, and I can say with certainty that at your strongest you are still more frail than that demon at _his _weakest!"

"You know, if my knowledge about this dimension is correct, then in this day and age it's rude to make assumptions about people based entirely on their physical appearance." Bren said snarkily, crossing his arms. "I can already see the internet exploding over that...there are security cameras in this lobby, right? I could sell that footage...maybe do some more blackmailing…"

"Joking about this will not get rid of the fact that you are no match for me." The Knight said. "I don't care for the social guidelines of Earth, or Mewni. Only the actual law. And you interrupted what I was going to say! Hush now, so you can hear my reasoning."

"God, I can't tell if you have some weird superiority complex or if you're just a senile old man." Bren said. "Probably both."

"Quiet!" The Knight thundered. "So, my reasoning. I have fought many opponents _Bren." _He spat the name out with disdain. "And after so many years, I can tell the strength of a person with one glance. I saw the strength of that demon, and I knew I had to act quickly. It has helped in many battles, letting me know when I am fighting against an enemy that I cannot best. But when I saw _you..._I felt nothing at all. Which you are so weak that my special sixth Knight sense did not even register you as a threat! I-"

"Sixth sense?!" Bren shouted incredulously, hoping that he'd wake up right about now. "My god, do you hear yourself? This sounds like a bad movie! That is totally something you made up on the spot. You know you had to act quickly against Lucitor because he's a demon prince and would kick your ass if you didn't get the first blow in like that! So…" He sighed again. "I'm assuming this was some attempt at intimidation that worked against all the other morons you've gone up against, and therefore…" Bren looked like he was about to continue his beration, but thought otherwise and instead waved his hands in front of him, clearly done with everything. "Oh forget it." He scoffed. "I'm rambling on. Long story short, cut the bullshit and fight me already if you're going to."

The Knight stood silently after this lengthy criticism, taking it all in one word at a time. A minute later, he pulled a long dagger out of nowhere without saying a word and aimed it at Bren. However, before Bren could sigh again, he flipped it around in his hand and grabbed hold of the blade, offering up the handle.

"Take it."

"What?" Bren asked. "You want me to take your little toothpick?"

"Yes." The Knight said. "And _I…" _He pulled out another dagger of equal length, causing many present to question where he had hidden them. "Will use _this _to fight you. So take the dagger, and let us duel."

"What, right here in the lobby?"

"Yes."

Bren opened his mouth to say something, but closed it a second late, deciding that it wasn't worth the hassle to get in another moronic argument. He stepped forward and snatched the weapon out of the Knights hand, before twisting it around so he was holding it in a stabbing position.

"Okay." He said. "So how are we doing this? You go first, I go first?"

"You are the weaker of the two of us. I will allow you to strike first, but be warned that I _will-"_

"Oh, how _generous _of you! Bren interjected sarcastically. "When this is all over, I'll personally make sure that "overconfident" goes on your tombstone."

Without waiting a second more, Bren gripped the knife and then sent it flying at the Knight with perfect aim, so fast that the only thing the Mewman had time to do was move his hand in front of his face and block the attack. The dagger sunk itself deep into the back of his palm and exited out the other side, cutting straight through his armor like it wasn't even there to begin with. Blood spurted from the wound and splattered onto the floor, but the attack was so fast that the Knight didn't even react to the pain until a few seconds had passed, like his nerves had trouble catching up.

"AHH!" He exclaimed, grabbing the handle and yanking the blade out of his hand. He threw it over his shoulder in rage, where it disappeared behind a nearby vending machine. "YOU LITTLE…...little...no." He stopped himself and took a deep breath. "No, I will remain calm. I will not allow myself to get angry over this, painful as it is. It is not the way of a knight to get eagerly over paltry injuries such as this. Besides, that was an impressive move, and I am honored to have been injured by it."

"You have a...weird sense of honor." Bren noted. "Also, thank you. I've had some practice in…" He paused and his gaze darted to the side. "...Other places, even if I've never really needed a blade to kill people."

"All that may be true, but don't expect that code of honor to save you now." The Knight said, talking like he didn't have a hole in his hand. "You have given up your weapon, and you are now defenseless."

"You did hear what I just said, right?" Bren asked. "About not really needing knives and all that crap to kill people?"

"I heard you loud and clear." The Knight confirmed. "I assumed you were talking about the cowardly manner in which you plant bombs and blow things up that way."

Bren made a "pft" sound. "You know, one of these days, I'm going to make sure that everyone knows why trying to butt into these kinds of things is a bad idea. I just need an opportunity…" Bren then glanced around at her crowd of people still surrounding the two of them, several of which were recording the whole thing. "Oh hey. Would you look at that. An opportunity."

"Yes, an opportunity." The Knight parroted. "All of Earthni, and soon the world, will see what happens to those who harm it. Just like with Mina. She tried to destroy us, and now she's nothing but a pile of ash! She deserved her fate."

"First off, Mina was trying to destroy monsters, not you." Bren pointed out. "Second off...you do realize that _I_ was the one who killed her, right?"

"You...you were?" The Knight asked. "That was you?"

"Wha-you didn't know?!" Bren exclaimed. He turned towards the Attendant. "Was this information not made public or something?"

They shrugged.

"Are you kidding me...what the fuck Eclipsa." Bren mumbled. He turned his attention back to the Knight, who was still recovering from the news that one of Mewni's worst enemies had been killed by _another _one of its worst enemies. He then looked over at one of the bystanders who was recording the whole thing and walked over to them. The movement was so sudden and random that they almost didn't react at first, but eventually they realized he was coming for them and backed away like he was diseased. Once they hit the back wall, they stopped and put their hands in the air like Bren had a gun trained on them.

"I-I don't have a problem with you." They said fearfully. "I d-don't really mind that you-"

"Your phone, give it to me." Bren demanded.

"What? You want my _phone?_" They asked. "What for?"

"I have to make a call."

"C-can't you just use the phone on the desk over there?" They said, pointing at the Attendant, who was still barely visible behind the dozens of stacks of paper.

"No, because that phone is currently buried under a good fifty pounds of paperwork, and I'm not in the mood to find it." Bren seethed. "I _wanted_ things done quick and easy when I came to this little shithole, and even though that's not really an option at this point, I'm still going to try and accomplish it. So hand your phone over, or I'll cut your head off and mount it on the wall behind you for shits and giggles."

As this whole exchange took place, the Attendant slowly moved their hand underneath the desk, taking advantage of the fact that Bren was completely distracted for the first time since he got here. In truth, the desk phone was _not _buried under any amount of paper. It was actually hidden beneath the desk, in case they needed to call in an emergency. And this definitely qualified as one. If Bren just stayed like that for a minute or so more, then they might be able to-

"F-fine. Take it." The man with the phone said, offering the device to Bren, who snatched it out of his hands, and then stared at it for a second like it was the first time he had ever seen a piece of non-magical technology.

"What's your passcode?" He asked, holding the phone up and waving it back and forth.

"Uh...5636…" The man mumbled. "I use that because-"

"I don't care about your reasoning, but thanks for the cooperation." Bren said, putting in the code and then opening the phone app. He dialed the number to the Monster Temple (714-274-9999 to be exact) and waited for it to ring.

Everything was going wrong.

* * *

"Globgor, I'm fine, I don't need any help."

"Eclipsa, you're practically limping. Let's just get you to bed, and you can finally get the rest you need. Okay?"

"But I-"

"No buts. Not this time. We both know how tired you are. That little display back at the meeting confirmed it."

With a sigh, Eclipsa closed her mouth and forced her legs to move onwards, heavily assisted by her husband. The walk back to the Temple from the meeting had drained her of whatever stamina and adrenaline she had left, turning her into a pained and wheezing person that couldn't hurt a fly if she wanted to. The countless hours of staying up and working non stop last night had finally taken their toll, with some enforcement of course. Janna's little reprimanding had knocked her out of it and convinced the Queen that she needed to get home, although it _hadn't _entirely convinced her of the fact that she could walk without help.

And now they were back in the Temple and in their bedroom, with Eclipsa literally collapsing onto the bed the second they arrived. Globgor opened his mouth to make a comment on how she shouldn't push herself like this, but once he started hearing snoring sounds one second after she hit the mattress, he decided against it. He grabbed one of the blankets and threw it over her, before going to check on Meteora, who was hopefully asleep as well. Being a baby, she had a rather erratic sleeping pattern, one that had caused...disturbances, shall we say, in the past.

He entered Meteora's room and peeked in her crib, only to find it empty. While normally this would cause a sensible parent to have a freak-out, Globgor just huffed. This was normal after all, because Meteora didn't sleep in her crib half the time. One time they found her snoozing upside down on the ceiling, her claws digging into it for leverage.

'Still, I better search for her…' He thought to himself, fully aware of the kind of hijinks an unattended Meteora could get into. (He still shuddered every time someone mentioned the infamous "crayon incident." It took three whole days of scrubbing to get rid of all the evidence.) He checked under her crib, in the closet, inside those weird giant funnel toys she liked to crawl through, but she was nowhere to be found. And once he started to get a feeling of actual panic that she might have wandered off, he heard a loud "Dada!" directly above his head. He smiled instinctively and didn't even look up, already knowing who was above him.

And like clockwork, Meteora leaped down and landed on his head, babbling baby nonsense. And for all Globgor, or anyone else really knew, it could have been a genius explanation of quantum physics or just a request for food. Because even after months of trying, he and Eclipsa were still nowhere near successfully deciphering Meteora's baby speech. Those words were on a whole other level.

He then laughed and gently pulled her off, holding the baby in front of him so he could get a better look. Thankfully, Meteora wasn't covered in dozens of unidentifiable stains as she usually was, but was still holding something between her teeth. She spat it out, and Globgor recognized it as the head of the Marco doll that Janna had gifted to them a week ago.

And it was identical to the head of the doll that Janna had gifted to them the week before that. And the week before _that, _and...so on. Because Meteora destroyed the dolls at such a frequent rate that they had to be constantly replaced, and Janna's only request was that they send the heads back to her after Meteora was finished with them. Globgor didn't know why she had made this request, and frankly he didn't want to know. From what he had seen of Janna, she was...odd, to put it politely.

But unfortunately, with her having been in the hospital, she had missed the last delivery, prompting a bit of a meltdown from Meteora that resulted in something now known as the "doll incident." (There were dozens of named "incidents" involving Meteora. The only problem was keeping track of them all.) Thankfully, she had calmed down, but only after Eclipsa dug up one of Marco's old hoodies that he had left behind at the Temple and gave it to her to rip to shreds. She still occasionally found fragments of it, small red pieces of cloth hidden underneath cushions and rugs.

And Eclipsa _really _hoped that this murderous rage towards Marco didn't stick her entire life, because otherwise, the boy was truly in great danger anytime he came over. The Queen still remembered the time that Meteora has intricately converted a good twenty percent of the entire Temple into a "funhouse" polluted by trapdoors with spikes and various other torture instruments when she heard that Marco was coming over later that evening. All when she was still less than two years old.

If anything, Meteora could accomplish great things if she used her hatred of Marco to push herself.

But back in the present, Globgor had slung the baby over his shoulder and walked back into the bedroom, where Eclipsa was still snoring away. Meteora spotted her mother and reached out for her, and just as Globgor was about to tell Meteora that mommy couldn't play with her right now in the most baby-esque voice he could muster, the phone in the next room over rang, making Meteora grumble at the blaring noise invading her ears.

Globgor sighed and switched to holding Meteora up with one arm, before walking over to the phone and frowning when he saw it displaying a caller ID he didn't recognize. After so many months of learning to properly use the machine, he knew that this probably meant there was an attempted scam waiting on the other end of the line. But he also knew that it could be an actual person this time, so he grabbed the phone and put it up to his ear.

"Monster Temple, King Globgor speaking. Who is this?" He asked, while Meteora busily chewed on his ponytail.

"An old friend." The person on the other end of the line said, making Globgor arch an eyebrow. That voice...it _seemed _familiar, but he couldn't quite pin it down. Unfortunately, the Temple's phone lines had been partially chewed on by enfant terrible, and so any noise coming from the other was usually grabbed to the point where it was hard to figure out who exactly was speaking. It was still _audible, _sure, but if the phone didn't have caller ID, then it'd be impossible to know who was calling until they personally presented that fact.

"Old friend?" Globgor said. That was a lot of possibilities. "Could you be a little more specific than that?"

The stranger on the other end of the line sounded confused. "Do...do you not recognize my voice?"

"Sorry, the phone lines are really screwy here." Globgor apologized. "If you want me to know who you are, you're going to have to tell me yourself. Again, sorry."

"No need to apologize." The Stranger said. "Although this messes up whole mystery thing I was about to do…"

"The what now?"

"Nothing!" The Stranger said. "Listen, Globgor, is Queen Eclipsa there? I need to speak with her. It's urgent."

"Actually, can I request to know who I'm speaking to?" Globgor asked, as politely as possible. "You said you were an "old friend", but when it comes to narrowing down the list of possibilities...that just doesn't work out. I'd like to know if that's alright with you."

It's alright!" The Stranger said. "It's me, Buff Frog. You know, monster that came over while back to show you his kids?"

"Buff Frog?!" Globgor exclaimed, certain that the memorable frog monster he had met a number of times was _not _who he was speaking to. "Why are you...wait. You're not Buff Frog. What are you talking about? Who is this really?"

"What do you mean "you're not Buff Frog?" Of course it's me!" "Buff Frog" claimed. "Not many other monsters who know direct call number of Monster Temple after all. Remember, you gave me a number?"

"I...do remember giving him that number, but if you're really Buff Frog, then what happened to your accent?" Globgor asked. "He has a very thick accent, something that you're definitely lacking."

"Ah. Just a virus." "Buff Frog" claimed. "It's messing up my throat badly, and spreading through monster village. But nothing to worry about. Should pass in a few days."

"Oh...a virus. That's not good." Globgor said, before scowling in such a way that one would think his face had been frozen since the day he was born. Because now he knew that they were just blatantly lying. Globgor was completely aware of any and all major events taking place in the monster section of Earthni. It was literally his whole job. And if a "virus" was spreading through it like wildfire, then there was no way in a million days that he wouldn't know.

Although...back at the meeting, Buff Frog _did _mention a cold, which could have been a precursor for this virus. Globgor would have called him out on it then, but decided that Buff Frog had his own personal reasons for not telling the truth, so he let it go. However, with this call, he realized that whoever this imposter is was either at or listening in to the meeting. And neither of these were good options. But it could really only be the second option, considering that none of the Royals there had any reason to call Globgor at a time like this but what was this person trying to gain? What were they even after?

There was only one way to find out. And although denial forced the Monster King to believe that someone like Bren wasn't behind all of it, it was painfully obvious that it couldn't be anyone else at this point. Hell, he had even said that he _wiretapped _the meetings earlier, which would match up with the mystery caller who knew about the virus.

But what did this mean overall? Was Buff Frog an agent of Bren like Brudo and Mina? And was he going to turn out the same way as them? Killed by a massive explosion or a slow and painful trial by fire? Even if he was working with public enemy number one, Globgor didn't want that for him. Especially since Buff Frog would never work with Bren willingly. He had to be like Tom. He had to have some kind of leverage, like his friends or even his...children.

Globgor almost three up out of disgust right then and there, horrified by the implications of all of this.

'Steady.' He thought to himself. 'Remember, this is all just an assumption at this point. Well, not the part where this isn't Buff Frog, that little lie about the virus in the monster village proved that, but this might not be Bren. Just because he's the main problem at the moment doesn't mean he's behind _everything _bad going on. And who knows! Maybe this isn't even anything bad! Maybe it's just some random scammer pretending to be one of my friends in an attempt to get some money out of me.'

Globgor sighed and glanced up at Meteora, who was vigorously slapping the top of his head like it was a bongo drum. Wishful thinking, at best.

But all in all, Globgor was intrigued. If somebody was pretending to be Buff Frog like this, then he'd like to know their reasoning behind it. And since this person knew the Temple's phone number, they also had to be someone close. Someone Globgor trusted that for an unknown reason was now pretending to be one of his acquaintances. Unless, of course, it was a _particular _enemy that forced one of his friends to tell them the number…

And there was really only one "enemy" at the moment he could think of, further proving that the mystery caller was likely he-whose-name-will-become-a-misdemeanor-one-day.

'Alright.' The Monster King thought. 'I'll play along with this person. See what he wants. Pretend that I believe he's Buff Frog. If I can find out what he wants, I might be able to figure out who he is. And if it's who I think it is...then I need to find Buff Frog ASAP. And his little "Buff babies".' Globgor sighed internally. 'Oh jeez, I hope they weren't hurt in the explosion. There's so many people I haven't checked up on since that…'

"Are you still there?" "Buff Frog" asked, an impatient tone hidden behind a joyful mask. "Do you, ah, need help?"

"No, sorry, something caught my attention...Buff Frog." Globgor choked out. "Okay. I believe you. I was actually checking up with the monster village and they confirmed that you're sick with several others."

"See? I was telling truth!" "Buff Frog" exclaimed, although he sounded more than a little confused at this reveal. "Nothing to worry about. It's me."

"Yup. Nothing to worry about now. Sorry I doubted you." Globgor said, before thinking to himself again. 'I should see what they're after. Stick to what I was doing originally.' He thought. 'If it's not Buff Frog but just some random scammer that somehow got in in the meeting and is pretending to be him, I'll hang up and alert the council that we should up the security even more next time. But if it's Bren…' Globgor took a deep breath. 'Well, I'll just hang up on him too. Not much else I can really do. I could report Buff Frog to the knights we have left, but I don't even know what they'd do. If we try to take over his house, Bren might blow it up like Avarius mansion. And this time it'll be directed at taking _us_ out. Which brings me to something else and...hm. Okay, "Buff Frog", let's see what you know.'

"Buff Frog, can I ask you something?" Globgor requested. "I know it's probably rude considering you were the one who called and you probably want to talk about something else, but somethings been on my mind for a while and I'd like to know if _you _know anything about it."

"Ask away." "Buff Frog" said. "I'd be happy to help Globgor. Long as it's not personal. As a former spy, I greatly value my privacy."

"I understand." Globgor deadpanned. "Okay, so as you know, at the meeting earlier Zudo went missing."

"Ah, yes." "Buff Frog" said. "Actually just left. I would have stayed longer for Janna's plan on how to invade Underworld, but I have children to take care of. Some of them don't like it if I'm away for too long. _Really _hoping that that's just a phase…" "Buff Frog" then chuckled, and Globgor gave off one of his own, although there was approximately zero humor in either of them.

"How are they anyways?" Globgor asked, stalling for time. Judging by the tone in this guy's voice, despite how much it sounded like they wanted to help, what they really wanted was for this to be done and done as quickly as possible. And Globgor wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to screw up whatever he was planning.

"They are doing well." "Buff Frog" claimed. "Little Katrina is even training other kids at human school to be spies like her. Some of the other parents have complaints, but I'm encouraging it. Never know when spy skills might come in handy!" "Buff Frog" exhaled and made a small mumbling sound like he was contemplating what to do next. "Now, what were you about to ask?"

"I was going to ask about Zudo." Globgor said. "I was wondering if you had seen him. I have a feeling that he might have run off to the monster section of town if Bren's after him, and since you're there right now, I thought you might have seen him."

"Buff Frog" made a low humming noise and sounded like he was shaking his head. "Sorry, none of us have seen him." He said. "If he's here, he's hiding remarkably well. I just hope he's okay. With Bren after him, I fear there is nowhere safe for him to hide…"

"Yeah, it's sad. But…if you do find him Buff Frog, make sure to be easy with him." Globgor said, not even sure himself as to where he was going with this. "He's probably really scared right now, and I don't think he'll want to be surrounded with a bunch of other people."

"I understand." "Buff Frog" said. "If me or anyone else find him, I'll make sure to have them tell you first thing. Maybe we can hold off Bren. Keep him in place where that little devil won't think to look."

"Thanks Buff Frog." Globgor forced out. "I knew I could count on you." He bit the inside of his cheek slightly and quickly thought of a way to drag the conversation out further. "Oh, and by the way, I want to ask you about the upcoming Stump Day celebration."

"Buff Frog" made another deep humming sound and for a second the Monster King thought he was about to break character. But alas, the pretender managed to keep calm, much to Globgor's _own _internal strife.

"Why? That's not for months!" "Buff Frog" said. "I get you might want to plan ahead, considering how important it is as Earthni's first Stump Day celebration, but don't you think it's early? Especially at time like this?"

"I know, but I think we need a bit of joy in this town." Globgor said. "If we start advertising Stump Day-"

"Going to stop you there." "Buff Frog" interjected, trying to sound as courteous as possible. "Winter festivities in middle of Summer? What are we, Hallmark channel? Globgor, I am saying this with all the wisdom I have learned from spending many years as Ludo's henchman, Mewni's monster ambassador, and father. We should not prematurely celebrate something, _especially _a holiday, just because we think it might go well with the people. We are in middle of a fight my king, if that meeting from earlier was anything to go by. You shouldn't waste time on thinking about trivial things, when the enemy is right in front of us, scheming away." He said, simultaneously reminding Globgor of what was going on _and _why his plan to drag the call out was failing.

"I...get what you're saying." Globgor admitted nervously, feeling that he was now on the losing side of this. "But-"

"Then why did you recommend we perform such wild move?" "Buff Frog" asked. "That is not like you, Globgor. I have known you for decent amount of time, and I am certain that you wouldn't make such ridiculous suggestion when enemy from another dimension has declared war on us."

'Don't start criticizing me you…' Globgor thought, before stopping himself. 'No, don't get mad. That's what he wants. He wants me to get mad and ask him what he wants so we can get straight to the point. But I need more time.'

He glanced over at his wife, who was still sleeping soundly. 'Should I wake her up?' He contemplated. 'She _is _a lot better at this kind of stuff than I am. And...no, I can't do that. She's exhausted. If she wakes up sometime in the next twelve hours I'll be surprised. So if I get Eclipsa up now, she won't be able to help. She'll just be disheveled and tired and...angry.' He winced. 'Not an option. Come on, think! There has to be a way!'

"Did you hear what I said?" "Buff Frog" asked. "About whole Stump Day idea. I hope you understand why it is, and I don't mean offense, just telling the truth, a terrible one?"

"Yeah, I should have thought it through a little better." Globgor admitted. "But you got the idea behind it, right? People need happiness right now! Maybe Stump Day can help with that!"

"Globgor, monsters literally living in fear of that cursed thing. Almost sacrificed animals at one point. No joke." "Buff Frog" pointed out. "Thanks to obnoxious and overblown tales by village elders. About how "Mewman Gods" are vengeful and demand sacrifice. Shame we didn't find out elders were taking sacrifices for themselves until it was too late…"

"What are you trying to tell me exactly?" Globgor asked, lacking the knowledge to either confirm nor deny the events of that story.

"My point is that most everyone is happy Stump is gone." "Buff Frog" said. "I don't think it'd make anyone happy. If anything, it'd only make everyone's attitude worse. Like I said, Hallmark channel. Cheesy, lazy, and not worth time."

"Okay, you keep saying that, but I have no idea what you're talking abo-"

"The premature Stump Day celebration...a terrible idea." "Buff Frog" finished. "If you decide to go through with it, then I will make sure no monsters participate. Do you understand _now_?"

"..."

"Glad you agree." "Buff Frog" said, taking the silence as a "yes." "But now, there is something I must discuss. The main reason I called actually. A matter...concerning Mina Loveberry."

'Dang it…' Globgor seethed internally. 'He got me. Roped me into his conversation just like I tried to rope him. I can't just interrupt him now, or he'll think I'm onto whatever he's doing. Okay. Don't panic. You can still do this. If Mina's involved for whatever reason...then maybe it's just one of her followers that wasn't at the mansion when it blew up?'

Globgor knew this was nothing more than wishful thinking, and sighed. It was quite possible that those morons didn't know how to operate a light switch, much less a telephone.

"Mina?" He said, trying to sound as surprised as possible. "What's going on with Mina? Isn't she-"

"Dead, yes." "Buff Frog" interjected. "But unfortunately, there seems to be misinformation trouble because of her death. Globgor, do you mind telling me exactly _how _she died?"

"Um, Bren burned her alive because he didn't want to share killing Star with her." Globgor replied, stating the obvious. "Why are you asking? You already knew that. You were literally in the meeting with everyone else when Bren crashed it and admitted to it."

"Not asking for my sake, but for the sake of the rest of town." "Buff Frog" said. "Has council made this information public?"

"Uh...well, we released a bit of a statement, but I don't think that many people paid attention to _who _did it." Globgor revealed. "They were just happy she was gone, regardless of who did the killing."

"Yes, and that caused problems." "Buff Frog" said.

"Once News of Mina's death reached monster section of town, everyone overjoyed and celebrating. And I know it's considered bad taste to celebrate over death of a person, but frankly, we couldn't resist after everything she put us through." He confessed, actually sounding guilty that such an event had taken place. "But we thought we had finally made it. That nothing else could harm us in our path to become one with the two other species of Earthni, now that she was gone."

"I do remember hearing that a few parties were taking place…" Globgor mumbled. "And I mean this literally. The music could be heard halfway across town."

"Apologize for that." "Buff Frog" penitently. "But once monsters start celebrating over something, usually don't stop until sunrise. If only police hadn't come to shut it down...otherwise it'd have spread into streets."

"And that's a _bad _thing?" Globgor asked.

"No, but it'd have certainly made for an entertaining night!" "Buff Frog" exclaimed happily. "At least until someone got hit by car. Probably Flunky. I always suspected that he would be first to die if one of our parties ever got out of hand."

"Right...Flunky…" Globgor said, wondering why any parent would name their child that way. "But what's going on with Mina? What happened after your party?"

"Bad things." "Buff Frog" said dramatically. "After we cleaned up mess, which took a good...twelve hours…we realized that we still didn't know how she died. We started festivities once news of her demise reached us. Then we…started looking for anyone who knew."

"Why'd you want to know so bad?" Globgor asked.

"Ha!" "Buff Frog" exclaimed suddenly, as if the noise had been forcefully pushed out of him. "Simple! Because we all wanted to meet person that had done it." He said. "Congratulate and thank them for killing Mewni's worst enemy. But...obviously…" "Buff Frog" sucked in a breath. "...it was not who we were expecting."

"Yeah, I suppose that kinda put a damper on your whole "monster savior" thing." Globgor said. "Especially since Bren only did it for himself."

"Based on what I've seen, that's exactly what I would have expected. Selfishly murdering Mina for personal gain, instead of us monsters. It sickened us greatly. All of us." "Buff Frog" revealed. "You see, we never wanted bloodshed. Even in years of old, most monsters were just following orders given to them by bloodthirsty generals. Refuse, and you'd end up on chopping block."

Globgor rolled his eyes, as he was of course already fully aware of this. Monsters had been doing that sort of thing ever since they first came in contact with Mewmans, and usually the foot soldiers couldn't care less about the war they were in.

Usually.

But this proved that whoever this pretender was didn't know their stuff, or at least didn't know him. No wonder they had asked to speak to his wife. No doubt they had a pre-written speech or something of the like already prepared for when Eclipsa answered the call, and was then forced to improvise when the wrong person did instead. It was clear they had been ready for something else.

"That's all interesting, but what does it have to do with why you didn't like the way Mina died?" Globgor asked. "I figure you'd be happy no matter what way she croaked, as long as it happened."

"Ah, but that is nothing but rumor." "Buff Frog" pointed out. "Like I said, monsters rarely want bloodshed. Only when something is directly threatening us and way of life, something like Mina, is when we make choice to have call to arms. Back then, decades before Merge, we did same with Mewmans, if only because they attacked us first and our generals decided that they all had to die. That was some whole stupid revenge-plot thing. Very cliche."

"I remember all of that back in my time as well." Globgor said. "But again, what does-"

"It is important because all the monsters in Earthni saw Mina as significant enough threat that she either had to be imprisoned forever or killed." "Buff Frog" explained. "None of us liked doing it. But we did make a bit of an...unofficial order against her before she died."

"A what?" Globgor queried. "What are you talking about? An "unofficial order"?

"Buff Frog" was silent for a moment, as if contemplating whether to tell Globgor or not. A moment later, he spoke again, only this time his voice was low and whispering, making sure that no one else could hear him.

"We issued order…" He repeated. "That if Mina ever entered Monster section of town, she was to be killed on sight."

"W-WHAT?!" Globgor exploded, almost dropping the phone and Meteora out of shock, who jumped at the sudden shout and clung to her father's head for dear life. "You...you had a _kill-on-sight_ order?!"

"..."

"Buff Frog…" He grumbled, praying that this was still a lie and not an _actual _order that was put out there. "Answer me."

"Eh...sorry." "Buff Frog" said. "It's just surprising to hear you yell. I don't think I've ever heard you that angry before."

"Well, when it comes to something like _this, _I think it's appropriate for me to be a little peeved." Globgor said.

"You did that...without my okay...this…" He sighed. "This is too far. So please. Please tell me that was a joke." He pleaded. "Please tell me that that wasn't a _real _order you sent out."

"It...it was." "Buff Frog" said nervously. "Looking back, I can see how it was bad idea. But hear me out! We had reasons for it!" He said, causing Globgor to roll his eyes again. He couldn't _wait _to hear this.

"Fine." The Monster King said. "Tell me. But don't expect me to agree with you." After this, he sighed in exasperation, mentally preparing himself for whatever crappy explanation "Buff Frog" could scrape up. And while Globgor knew that this wasn't _really _Buff Frog, he didn't think the pretender had a reason to lie about the kill order. Because when he really thought about it...and after everything Mina did to them...he could see the monsters pulling something like that. Despite their pacifism, even they had limits. He had seen what war and hatred had done to the monsters of his time, who were nothing more than sadistic abominations, looking for any excuse to cut a Mewman to pieces.

But this didn't do anything to cool his temper. He was still angrier than he had been in centuries. While normally he only got mad when someone threatened his family, the fact that the monsters did this in the first place enraged him to no end. Because by issuing an order like that, they were just as bad as Mina. Because making a shoot-on-sight order for any _monsters _is what she would have done had her uprising been successful.

They were no better. And _that _is what really ticked him off about all this.

"Fair enough." "Buff Frog" said. "Now, it's like what I said. People were scared of her. They were afraid Mina might try to attack monsters again like she did with Solarians. But no one was worried about it because we knew magic was gone, and Mina couldn't threaten us like that again."

"Then what changed?" Globgor asked. "What made you do that if you didn't believe she was a threat?"

"The discovery that she _could _threaten us like that again." "Buff Frog" revealed. "It was in meeting. One where we sat down and discussed human technology and what it could do. Karate boy was in charge of teaching us, along with Star and Eclipsa. Do you remember?"

"I do." Globgor said. "It was quite the show to see the reaction on all the Royal's face when they were told about the things Earth was capable of."

"Buff Frog" chuckled. "It certainly was! Only wish was that I had a camera. Then again, both of us had equally shocked reaction, didn't we?"

Globgor paused and began to recall how he had felt that day. Back then, he wasn't sure what to expect before the meeting had begun. In his time, Earth was apparently no more technologically advanced then Mewni was. Wooden ships, horse drawn-carriages, swords, and other simple melee weapons, along with a few bow and arrows, that's all they were capable of. But 300 years later, humanity had created devices that almost no other dimension in the entire multiverse could even dream of making. All entirely without magic. Moving pictures, giant steel wagons that could break the sound barrier (the sound barrier was also a new concept to Globgor), and devices that could transfer hundreds of pages of information across the planet in an instant. It was insane to think about, and even more insane to see in action.

And him it was _particularly_ shocking, as he was still getting used to the advancements that Mewni had made since his absence, with magic-powered phones and lights in some places. Mostly only available for nobility and the like, and very hard to make, but they still existed. He had tried to use Star's once, only to give up after a few minutes. It was simply too confusing. Eclipsa had already gotten a handle on all of it, but Globgor insisted that he didn't want to get involved with any of that unless it was necessary.

But with the Merge and the destruction of magic, it became more necessary than ever. Because now they were sharing a world where normal society wouldn't function without those sorts of things. Every Mewman and monster citizen had been given technology classes, including him. And then came the day with the meeting, which alone provided ten times more information than all of our precious classes combined. But Globgor knew better than anyone that the purpose of this meeting was not to show the royals some Earth tech. No, it was to illustrate why attempting to go to war with the planet a horrible idea.

This is how it went. First things first, roll call, a few complaints, Eclipsa starting it up, the usual. A slideshow was then brought in, containing hundreds of pictures with text showing examples of Earth tech and what exactly they were used for, as well as a short explanation of how they worked. Electrically powered phones, cars, rockets, satellites, televisions, all things that were completely alien to most of the Royals. Globgor just nodded along with it, seeing and hearing everything but understanding nothing. This went on for a half-hour, and then the _real _slideshow began.

The second half, the _real _half, was dedicated entirely to Earth weaponry and it's capabilities. Bombs that could vaporize entire cities. Gas designed to literally melt the flesh off its victims. And things like that didn't even begin to cover the _experimental_ weapons which were still being tested, devices that were the stuff of nightmares. For over an hour, they were shown footage from wars, testing ranges, and factories where all these things were created. It was almost dreamlike, seeing all that death and destruction and realizing that yes, it all happened, in this dimension, and the same people who _caused _it to happen would gladly do it again if it meant securing victory for their country.

Or at least their children and grandchildren would, but that's besides the point. It was the same mindset, same lust for war.

Once all was said and done, the Royals, simply put, were horrified _and _terrified. Many of them had been totally ignorant of Earth besides the fact that it didn't have magic. In fact, quite a few of them had even suggested after the Merge that they take over the dimension to build a new and bigger Mewni. But any opinions they had on that took a complete 180 after the presentation. Because not only did they learn that Earth tech was centuries ahead of Mewni, but that going to war would only result in the total annihilation of Earthni.

Learning that the dimension they believed only consisted of a few thousand total soldiers had in fact upwards of over 20 million was such a shock that every single one of them voted "Aye" on Eclipsa's proposed bill, one that she introduced after the slideshow was finished. The "Don't go to war with Earth because we'll all be dead in approximately ten minutes" bill. It was passed and given to the Earth governments, promising that Mewni is not and never will be an enemy of Earth unless provoked. They never received a response from anyone, but that was probably just because the world governments and the U.N. already knew they didn't pose much of a threat to begin with. The first thing that they had asked to see was Mewni's military capabilities, and they didn't bother hiding their relief when all they found was a bunch of medieval-age weaponry.

And Globgor remembered that day. The day all those agents and soldiers and negotiators and diplomats came to visit. To investigate Earthni and to gawk at the new dimension. They were mostly concerned about the new moons surrounding the planet, which thankfully and miraculously didn't change much. Sure, a few cities might have been...sunk on some coasts, but they were small ones! They could be rebuilt.

But if Bren was in control of them that far back, then they didn't show it. Who knows. Maybe they were actually planning on launching a preemptive strike on Earthni, attacking the invaders of their world before they had a chance to respond. But Bren stopped them, wanting that privilege all to himself.

And all it took was a single teleporting demon to make them bow down…

Globgor huffed and shook these thoughts out of his head. The whole "Bren is in control of the government" theory was still just that. A theory. It made some sense, considering how little help they received for recent events, but until they got solid evidence, like say, an email that read "Bren has taken control of the Pentagon and everyone in it", the Royals couldn't prove anything.

And besides, he had more vital things going on at the moment. Who knows how long "Buff Frog" has been waiting for him to answer while he scoured through his memories and shut out the rest of the world. Globgor glanced upwards and saw that Meteora had fallen asleep on his head, which was proof that it had been at least a good few minutes. Not that he minded of course. The last half-hour had consisted of him stalling for time for...whatever reason, and who knew that all it led too was him simply getting lost in his own head?

But still, now was the time to answer. Hopefully the pretender hadn't hung up at this point and-

"Excuse me?" A voice to his left said. Globgor's focus on the phone vanished and his eyes widened as his brain registered the voice, one that he recognized in an instant. The phone dropped from his hands as he turned towards the newcomer, someone that he was sure would have skipped town by now.

"I need your help…"

* * *

"...But then again, me and you had an equally shocked reaction, didn't we?" Bren asked, doing his best to fake a Russian accent, which sounded a lot like a poor attempt at an Australian one. Despite all the weird and random skills he had learned since coming to Earth, faking a voice impression was something he never quite got down. Thank the fire-God that Mina's followers were stupid enough to fall for his Brudo.

But unfortunately for him, he was not having the same luck from Globgor.

It was obvious that the Monster King knew he wasn't really Buff Frog, and Bren silently chided himself for picking him, or heck, even doing an

impression in the first place. The whole point of the damn call was to get Eclipsa to make an announcement that _he _was responsible for Mina's death, and now the whole thing had been sidetracked so intensely that he regretted not simply saying "Hey, this is Bren. Make a public announcement that I was responsible for Mina's death or I'll have Tom kidnap Meteora and feed her a pack of feral dogs, okay? Okay. Glad we're all on the same page."

That would have been a _lot _quicker. Not to mention an easier method and also more in character with himself. But Bren wanted to have some fun with Globgor, and now that plan had backfired. The Monster King was wasting his time, and while he knew that there really wasn't any sort of threat from the police arriving (considering that there _was _no police), he wasn't in the mood for every single member of the hospital's security to show up and try to take him down, which for some reason they hadn't already.

Then they'd fight and they'd lose, people would be screaming from all the blood, and that would attract even _more_ people who would start screaming, and it'd just multiply from there. Not helpful. To him or anyone else.

'Not helpful...' He thought. 'Speaking of which…'

Bren then glanced over at Tom, who was still buried in the wall, unconscious. The Knight who had done this to him was standing nearby, waiting for his enemies' next move. Bren was hardly even looking at him. Even if the Knight managed to score a surprise hit, it's not like he could do much damage. At most he'd get thrown into a wall like Tom, but that was nothing he couldn't walk off. Frankly, Bren was disappointed that the Knight hadn't already attacked him and gotten it over with. Because he could feel the stares of some of the other people in the lobby. And that was a whole other matter by itself...

Every single one of them was contemplating if they should attack him or not while he was distracted. Whether they should just grab a chair and whack him with it or not. Because all _they _knew about him was that he was now alone and without help. A few people had actually _tried _to make a move, but anytime someone did, the Knight forced them to sit back down with nothing but a glare, likely wanting the glory of taking down Earthni's current biggest threat for himself. At least that's what Bren thought. That and/or the fact that everyone _in _the lobby was wounded or otherwise exhausted, to the point where most of them needed help walking. Even if Bren was as weak as he looked, the outcome of the conflict between him and the gaggle of random people around him was obvious.

And then there was the Knight himself, waiting nearby for Bren to finish his phone call because of "honor" or something equally silly. And if anything could be said of the old man, it was that he had amazing patience. Other than the occasional glare, he hadn't moved a muscle since Bren dialed the Temple, behaving almost like a statue. After the last would-be attacker had been intimidated, it was quite possible that he had now fallen asleep, standing up with his eyes open, and Bren was tempted to throw a nearby wastebasket at him to test this theory.

However, a problem to be dealt with once the call was over…which might take a while, considering that it had been over two minutes and Globgor was still silent.

Bren's gaze then drifted over to the desk Attendant after the Knight and Globgor had left his mind, as that whole deal was a rabbit hole he'd rather not get sucked into further. They were sitting at the desk, as per usual, trying to look somewhat inconspicuous. Bren frowned and took a few small steps towards them, where he saw that their shoulder and arm was moving _ever _so slightly to the right, reaching for something out of view.

'Yeah...that's not happening. The hospital security or the remaining knights are the last thing I need right now.' Bren thought, before letting his phone hand drop to his side and walking over to the Attendant, who was just now realizing his approach. Once he reached them he did the same thing from earlier, resting both his elbows on the surface and staring at them.

"Uh...yes?" They asked nervously, trying to keep their arm as still as possible.

"So, what are you trying to do?" Bren asked, peeking over the miniature wall of paper.

"I...what do you mean?" They asked, noticeably sweating. "I've just been sitting here the whole time. I haven't done a single thing since you got here."

"Then take your arm out from under the desk, show me what you have, and everyone here can see if that's a lie or not." Bren said. "Otherwise...I'll rip your arm off_, _and figure it out for myself."

The Attendant gulped but didn't back down. They had already gone too far to stop now. Just like the earlier confrontation, there was no turning back. "You still don't scare me." They said.

"Oooh?" Bren said, with a tone that was saying "I should have just broken their fingers earlier and forced them to give Butterfly's room number so I could avoid all this crap". He placed the phone on the desk and leaned closer. "What's that? I don't frighten you?"

"No." The Attendant said sternly. "I'm beginning to wonder if a single person here is really scared of you. Look at that." They pointed at the hole in the wall, and all eyes fell upon it. "You little bodyguard is down, so it's not like you have any way to defend yourself. Every single person in this room has glanced at you and then at an inanimate object at least once. Literally everyone is planning to attack you."

"Then why haven't they?" Bren asked expectantly. "I'm been distracted by this phone for like, forever."

"Because of me." The Knight announced, as if it was supposed to be a surprise. "I have been keeping these people back from attacking you. They may have been scared at first, but ever since your pathetic demon went down, they see you for what you really are. A coward."

"How...am I a coward?" Bren asked, genuinely confused. "I have done basically nothing to suggest that-"

"Because you are not fighting me!" The Knight said.

"Yeah, _because _I'm talking to someone!" Bren said, pointing to the phone. "Also, what is taking Globgor so long? Never fancied him for the kind of guy who would have to think something out for this long..."

"That's everyone in this story. It's practically a damn theme." The Knight pointed out. "But you have not thrown a single punch at me! You have done nothing but talk and talk and talk, bluffing your way out of a fight! Well, no longer! I have decided that this fight starts now!"

"Now?" Bren huffed. "What happened to your precious honor? I remember you saying something about how I can throw the first punch or...something cliche like that."

"The honor of taking you down...is greater than the honor of keeping my word!" The Knight screeched, rocketing forward with his sword raised high in the air. Bren closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pocketed the cell phone.

'This is why I should just stick to torturing people for information.' He thought, and he opened his eyes just as the sword came down. Bren stepsided, and the blade made a sharp whistle as it sliced through the air and struck the floor, carving out a huge gash. The Knight dislodged his weapon and jumped backwards before Bren could counterattack (he wasn't planning too) and prepared to strike again.

"Wow, you are really not kidding about not having honor anymore." Bren said. "It's almost like you discarded it for no reason other than to move the plot along!"

"My true reasons are my own! But I wasn't lying about killing you." The Knight said. "You are not leaving this room alive!"

"Fine." Bren said. "You wanna get rid of honor? Play dirty? I can play dirty. Let's play…sweep the leg!"

"Sweep the wha-" Was all the Knight got in before Bren rushed towards him. The old man raised his blade for another hit, but Bren was too quick, and kicked him in the back of his left knee, causing the Knight to flip over and land flat on his back. The resulting _CLANG _as the armor impacted against the linoleum floor made the entire room shake, and every bystander froze in place, the noise acting almost like some kind of freeze gun.

The Knight looked up groggily, now more furious than ever. Visions began dancing in front of his eyes as his rage started bubbling beneath the surface. Visions of him overwhelming this opponent, making him pay for this humiliation, all the while he begged for mercy. The Knight would never live this down, thrown to the floor by such a little scamp of an enemy. He'd make them rue that cowardly move. Every day for the rest-

Unfortunately, the Knight's dramatic visions of grandeur were swiftly interrupted when he spotted a fist flying at his face, coming at about a few hundred miles per hour. He gasped, and rolled to the side, barely dodging the attack as it missed his head and struck the floor. Almost like a meteor, a small crater was made on impact with cracks spiraling in every direction away from it. The Knight used both his legs to push himself backwards and then jumped back on his feet. He took a defensive pose with his sword and tried to ignore the now beating heart in his ears, cursing himself for showing fear at a time like this.

"Huh…" Bren said, glancing up at him and pulling his fist away from the ground. "You're surprisingly fast for your size. I thought that'd have gotten you."

"You underestimate me." The Knight said. "I may look old and frail, but I am like a great tree on the inside. I have grown stronger with age, and will continue too. The strength I possess is more than enough for the likes of you! That last attack you threw at me was only because of good fortune! Next time you won't be so lucky."

"...As we all well know." Bren sighed. "You've said that stuff about strength a few times by now. Or something similar to it. You can't beat me! I'm old but strong! _We get it. _However…" His eyes turned to the cracks in the floor. "I think _you _underestimated me as well. You really think a normal person would have been able to create _that?"_

The Knight looked down at the crater, which was a good few inches deep. Bren's claim had a good backing behind it. Even if they weren't injured, the Knight doubted that a single person in this room would be able to create such a hole. Truly, there was more to him than initially thought. If he had created a mark like that with a single punch, then a direct hit to his armor…

Well, that might leave a dent or two.

'Think.' The Knight thought, a single bead of sweat dripping off his brow. 'How do I beat him without endangering the civilians? He's already proven his speed and strength. Both of which are higher than I anticipated. It certainly explains why he wasn't backing down at all earlier, or why he wasn't weary of all the civilians attempts at attacking him. He could have taken them down with ease whenever he wanted. But me, however…'

The Knight narrowed his eyes and began walking to the side, moving in a circle formation. Bren smiled and began copying his movements, and the two walked around an invisible dome, staring each other down.

'He won't be able to take me down that easily.' He continued. 'This armor is made of the toughest steel that Earth had to offer. Much stronger than whatever material the hospital floor is-_was_ made out of. He may be strong, but if his strength is anything like mine, then he won't be able to get past my shielding.'

The Knight then flipped the visor on his helmet down, obscuring everything but his eyes, and even then they were barely visible. He raised his sword in the air and prepared to launch another attack, resulting in Bren frowning in indifference and moving his right leg behind him. Now covered head to toe with the metal plating, the Knight was a fearsome opponent to behold, and most of the patients in the lobby moved towards the front door, wanting no part in the coming conflict.

'Wait...why didn't they do that earlier?' The Knight thought, watching them go. 'I'm actually confused by the way they just sat there earlier. The person who gave them all those wounds and possibly killed dozens of their friends was standing right in front of them for almost a half-hour, and they never even tried to flee until _now?! _All they did was try to perform sneak attacks on him, which I stopped because they could hurt themselves even worse in the process.'

While all this was happening inside the Knight's head, Bren sneaked a glance over at the door that led into the main hospital, wondering if he could sneak away, go to Butterfly, and get this whole thing over with. By this point, he should have visited her and left already. But because _someone _decided to allow themselves to be thrown into a wall...along with the fact that he couldn't stop himself from trying to have fun, this whole scene felt like it was far past it's expiration date. He grunted and decided against it, wanting to at least end the Knight first before setting out what he hoped to accomplish.

'The fact that they showed mostly anger up to this point is very surprising.' The Knight continued. 'Although it _is_ comforting to see that even injured, the civilians of this town have a spine. In crisis, they have shown their true colors, and they do not disappoint. Well...at first.'

'Christ.' Bren thought, inching closer to the Knight, one centimeter at a time. 'Is this _really _important right now? Is this really something that needed to happen? Come to think of it, did any of this need to happen? I thought you wanted a challenge Bren! Literally what you told Butterfly when you first met her. Sure, I'm changing my mind against that now, but...does doing that make me a liar, or just a hypocrite? Wait, no, I don't think that's what a hypocrite is...right?'

'But their absence is welcoming.' The Knight thought. 'Now the only people in the room are me, Him, the Attendant, and that demon, who is...surprisingly still unconscious. I knew I hit him hard, but jeez. Hope this doesn't stir up any tensions between Eclipsa and the Underworld when word of this gets out.' The Knight then snorted and gripped his sword tighter. 'Although I think the fact that the demon is already working for Bren in the first place confirms that that's _exactly _what will happen.'

'No, you know why you're doing this!' Bren told himself, having gotten far along with his internal conversation from where the Knight had interrupted them. 'Don't _delude _yourself into thinking that you're someone you're not. I am Bren! I'm not that stupid, mindless moron from years past. Yes, Brudo was right. I am a child throwing a tantrum with too many toys at my disposal. But if only they knew why...maybe they'd start to understand.'

'...'

'...'

'...'

Bren paused and shook his head, silently noting how ridiculous that sounded. 'Oh, who am I kidding? I've killed hundreds of them. If I appeared in front of a crowd, a _real _one, then they'd rush forward to tear me apart before I even got a single word in…'

'Is he even paying attention? He looks like he's lost in the Cloud Kingdom.' The Knight griped, having turned his attention back to the enemy. 'Hm. All the better for me then.' He exhaled and briefly closed his eyes. 'Forgive me fellow knights, I must give up my true honor and nobility as one of you in order to kill this creature while he is distracted. For Mewni. For Earth. For all of you. And for you Bren…'

The Knight inhaled and raised his weapon above his head, preparing to downward slash.

"NOW YOU DIE YOU SANCTIMONIOUS LITTLE MONSTER!" He screamed, feeling that something should be said for this historic moment. And with all the speed of a rampaging moose, he sprinted towards Bren, who hadn't even noticed that he was being charged.

'...And that doesn't even _go _into merchandising rights, and...huh?' He thought, as he felt the sudden vibration of the Knight's footsteps in the ground. He was like a rampaging rhino, sword held high in the air. Each step made a foot-shaped hole in the floor, like a train of bloody prints. Bren hardly even flinched when he saw the sight that would cause most anyone else to faint out of pure animal terror.

'Okay, let's finish this crap. Time to play _real_ dirty.' He thought. 'Let's see...hostage...hostage...wait, where the hell did everyone go?' He glanced around the room, only just now noticing that he, the Knight, and the Attendant were the only conscious people still there, and the latter was on the phone hidden under the desk, babbling incoherently. 'Fan-fucking-tastic.' Bren thought. 'Because I didn't consider them enough of a threat to bother paying attention, every security officer in the whole damn building will be here soon. No doubt a bad time had by all. But as far as hostages go…' He let out a "pft" and prepared to side-step just as the Knight leaped in the air. "...they'll do.'

"DIE!" The Knight shouted, as his sword came flying down yet again, only to miss...yet again. The sword went a full six inches into the floor, while Bren turned around after this and ignored the old man entirely, heading for the Attendant. The Knight tugged viciously at the handle, but it was stuck like it had been glued in place. By the time he freed his weapon from the ground, Bren would have made short work of him, likely denting his armor in two dozen fifteen places as a start.

Which, oddly, hadn't happened yet. The Knight turned to look at his foe, confused as to why the assault hadn't begun.

And then his heart sank.

Because he saw that Bren had a dagger in his hand, the same one he had tossed behind that human food dispensary earlier. And said dagger was now being held to the throat of the desk Attendant, the phone they were holding trembling in their hands with a look of pure terror in their face. Bren was standing directly behind them, flattening the blade against their neck as he held his other hand over their mouth, his single brown eye peeking from over their shoulder.

"You know...I should have just done this from the very start." He said, trying to ignore the tears that were coming out the Attendant's eyes and dripping onto his hands. "And I wanted to. So, so badly. In and out, quick and easy. But then I saw you, and all these people in the lobby, and I thought to myself, let's have some fun…so I tried to do that. Didn't work." He groused. "Everything was ruined by the reveal that nobody knew I killed Mina, and then I called Eclipsa, only for her idiot husband to answer, _who is probably still thinking to himself about nonsense and wasting everyone's time by the way, _and then you make up some shit about honor, take it back five seconds later, and...now we're here." He shook his head and chuckled, but it was more the laugh of a person who was losing their mind rather than a humorous one.

"...Let them go." The Knight demanded, not daring to make the wrong move. "I won't say it again."

"I don't think so." Bren said. "If you want them to survive, then you're going to do what _I _say. So first things first...step away from your sword."

The Knight glowered at Bren but did as he was told, taking a few steps backwards and leaving his weapon where it was. He had to, of course. Refusing to comply would result in the death of Bren's hostage, and their death would be because of him and his thirst for "honor".

That was a shame he'd be forced to carry forever, even in death.

"Good." Bren said. "Now Tom. Grab him and drag him out of the hole. And if you purposefully try to hurt him or break his arms or whatever, then I promise I will find a way to kill every single person I come across in this hospital today, _not _just this one." He twisted the dagger slightly, resulting in the tiniest amount of blood falling from the Attendant's throat. They whimpered, and silently wished that they had never tried to make that call to security. Especially since it had all been for nothing, since they never got through to them. No help was coming.

The Knight meanwhile, obeyed this order as well and walked over to the unconscious demon, before grabbing one of his legs and roughly pulling him out. Bren frowned when he saw the awful state his lackey was in, beaten and battered like he had been run over by a train. One of his horns had a giant crack running through it, and he seemed to be missing a few teeth as well. The rest of him was just covered in all sorts of various bruises, all of them a blackish-red in color.

'I should have prevented everyone from leaving.' He thought. 'Because now I _have _to track them down and kill them. They saw Tom get tossed into a wall like this. They saw him get defeated with a single smack, _and seriously, how the hell did that happen, _and I'm betting that they posted about it on Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr or whatever website they use to try and find meaning in their insignificant lives.' Bren grimaced. 'Which means that the government has likely seen it. Which means they know Tom is severely injured. Which means they know he isn't as tough as I claimed he was. _Which means _I have no fucking leverage against them, because now he's not in any shape to teleport in the Oval Office to give off some threats! Look at his arms for God's sake! Telling the Knight not to break them is pointless because I'm pretty sure they already are! And as for the emergency teleportation….forget it!' He huffed. 'That's only good for one go. Only for last-minute escape attempts and all that. Until Tom is healed, I have nothing.'

Bren but the inside of his lip and took a few deep breaths. 'Okay. Calm the fuck down.' He told himself. 'You're overreacting. Things may look grim, but they're not nearly as bad as you think. First off, you think the government is going to accept any calls from those people? The second one of those wounded loons so much as mentions me or Earthni online, the post will be "mysteriously" taken down without even being fully read first. And I'll admit it, the people I ordered to do that know what they're doing. Shame I had to kill a family member each and threaten the rest to get my point across, but hey…' He shrugged. '...It's getting the job done.'

He then turned his head towards the front sliding door, which hadn't been used ever since all the patients ran out like frightened rabbits.

'Alright. They're not a problem, so don't worry. But _these _two…' Bren turned his attention back to his adversary and hostage, one of which appeared to be checking if Tom was still alive while the other seemed to be silently praying. 'I still have to take them both out. The Attendant is likely going to go straight to what remains of the police, who will then go to the Royals, who will then complain about it to Eclipsa. Then _she'll _go to the government, and then they'll learn how I've taken over everything.' He blew some hair out of his face and glared at the old man. 'And him...well, I kinda just want to kill him now. But after these two are dead, I'll just get on that computer and search the hospital database myself for where Butterfly is. But not before locking the door so no one else gets in. And ending that call with Globgor, which can come never. Screw that whole thing, was a stupid idea to begin with.'

"Okay, good." Bren said to the Knight,. "Now come here."

The Knight paused. "No." He said defiantly. "No, I'm

Not taking another step."

"Excuse me?" Bren said, while the Attendant's eyes widened in trepidation. "Do you not see the hostage? Forget all the stuff I made you do five seconds ago? What are you doing now?"

"I'm not taking any more orders from you." The Knight said. "Not a single one. Those first two were just the initial fear of seeing that person die by your hand. But that fear is gone, overcome by humiliation and shame. I will no longer be bossed around by your filthy words. I refuse to listen to anyone but my superior."

"Fascinating." Bren said, obviously not interested in his reasoning in the slightest. "Then what's stopping me? Why don't I just kill them? After all, the only reason I'm keeping them alive is to use you. If you weren't here, I'd have slit their throat tens times over for that stunt they tried pulled the security."

"You won't do it. I don't believe you." The Knight said. "You are the type of person who does not like their hands getting dirty. At least not literally. You hide in the shadows, planting bombs, sneaking around, and-"

"I _literally _just tried to kill you with my bare hands five minutes ago." Bren said. "I don't like getting my hand dirty? Give me a fucking break!" He exclaimed. "Just yesterday I was drenched in head to toe with blood from Mina's little posse, and then I squashed a bunch of heads open like pumpkins! If anything, I _like _getting my hands dirty every now and then because it's _fucking fun!_"

The Knight reared back slightly after hearing this, a disgusted expression crossing his face. "Was that part about the head squishing a joke?"

"No, I did it to intimidate Brudo." Bren said. "Then he went all "I don't care about my life anymore", to _caring _about his life again, to not caring again. The whole situation was one giant nonsensical mess, like most things nowadays. Because if any of _this _made sense, then this fight would already be over, and I'd have moved on to Butterfly."

"You're saying none of this makes sense?" The Knight asked. "How so? I think you've outlined your goals pretty well."

"How so-!" Bren scoffed. "Take a look around dammit!" Where are all the doctors?! There were like a thousand doctors and patients strolling through the lobby every ten seconds that have suddenly and conveniently disappeared! Not to mention the fact that Lucitor still hasn't recovered _or _woken up after that _one punch_, and I don't care how strong you are, but he's a demon prince and should have gotten back up now. Christ, it's like he doesn't even know his own abilities. What's he even dreaming about? The big fat failure that is his love life?"

"...I don't see how any of this is relevant." The Knight said. "Those things can be easily explained. In the case of a threat, the required response is to press a button hidden under the desk to alert people not to come into the lobby, so-"

"That's not a thing hospitals have!" Bren shrieked. "At least not _this _one. Trust me, I scoped the whole place out months ago in preparation for a moment like this. I know the layout of the whole building, and there is not fucking button hidden under that desk!"

"It-it's...uh…" The Attendant choked out, before shutting their mouth and silently crying some more.

"Oh what?" Bren asked. "You got something to add? Tell me, what is that button doing there?"

"It's a new addition." The Attendant said. "It was just added l-last month."

"Ugh…" Bren sighed. "That explains it then. But it just _adds _to the nonsense because that would mean it'd tell people not to come to the lobby. Which means it should have alerted security to the fact that there is a threat, therefore you should not have made that phone call to get them down here in the first place! And where the hell even are they?!" He screeched, now totally out of control. "It's been like ten minutes since that call…"

"I-I wasn't able to reach them." The Attendant said. "Not before you walked over."

"Oh. Well, that's also completely idiotic!" Bren said. "If that phone is there _purely _for calling security, it should have a hotline with no buffering or delays or anything! If I was out for blood for all of you right now, I could have killed everyone in the lobby by the time you reached them! The hells up with the infrastructure in this place?! Phone calls like that working should be an absolute necessity!"

"The lines are likely tied up." The Knight suggested, dropping Tom's leg and slowly reaching behind his back. "Imagine how many people are calling the police asking for help."

"_Idiot." _Bren seethed. "A security call like that would be on a private line, not one that-"

"We d-don't have the money for a private line like that." The Attendant said. "The company we asked says we have to pay for it every week, as we don't have enough money to do that."

"Wha-you're an American hospital! You literally charge people's thousands of dollars for an _ambulance ride." _Bren countered. "How the hell are you out of money? Considering how stupid the people in this town are, you think they'd have to go here quite a lot…"

"Most of the m-money doesn't go to us or the hospital itself." The Attendant said. "It all goes to somebody else."

"Ah. The ones on top. Of course." Bren sighed. "You know what, I don't care. The world's problem, not mine. Back to criticizing all the flaws of what's happening right now. Let's see...ah yes!" His eyes lit up and he glared at the old man. "You!" He accused. "You and your hypocritical bullshit system of honor is _easily _the most inconsistent thing I've ever seen. One second you say I can land the first blow while also stopping others from attacking me, and the next _you're _the one striking from behind! What's up with that? Who even are you?! Why are you necessary?!"

"Why am I necessary…?" The Knight queried, looking at Bren like he was insane. "What kind of question is that?"

"It's the kind I ask when I've had enough of all the lazy explanations" Bren yelled. "Everyone has had enough. This entire thing has been an absolute bore for me to slog through. _You two _are completely unnecessary background characters in the grand scheme of things. I am done with having to be here, interacting with you, and being forced to live in the petulant adventures of people that I know nothing about and also don't care about."

"Do you have any semblance of sanity left?!" The Knight yelled. "What are you going on about? Background characters?! Petulant adventures?! Is this some sort of intimidation technique that-"

"Quiet!" Bren hissed. "You and your...ever-changing personality. You're like twenty different people at once. And you…" He glared down at the Attendant. "What happened to you? The person that's bored with their job and hates every aspect of it doesn't flee when they had the chance? What do you care about the people in this hospital?"

"Because I h-had too." The Attendant said. "If I didn't arrive, I w-was out of a job. I need the money."

"Not really, if your job performance before this all happened is anything to go by." Bren said. "You looked like a zombie. And not like a really tired person, I mean an actually fucking undead zombie, typing away at your computer. It's honestly quite amusing to watch at times. A person without a soul, sucked away by the corporate greed of their past professions."

The Attendant didn't know how to respond to this, but the Knight did. Or at least he knew how he wanted to respond. He had one weapon left, a small knife hidden in his back armor that was invisible to the naked eye. All he had to do was wait for the proper moment to throw it at Bren. He was positive that he could hit him without nailing his hostage, but even then, he'd have to be careful. It would take more precision than a skilled sniper trying to hit a target a mile away. If Bren moved just a little to the left, his blade would strike the innocent, and that would be the end of it.

So he just had to get him to keep talking. Talking about...well, whatever the hell he was complaining about just a second ago. Background characters and adventures and all sorts of nonsense. Keep him angry. Keep him distracted. Make him an easy target.

"What happened to that phone call you were on?" The Knight asked. "I thought it was very important, considering how you set all this aside in order to make it like nothing else mattered."

"Oh, screw that. I don't know what I was thinking." Bren said. "That entire thing was a waste of time, and-"

"Pft…" The Attendant scoffed, catching everyone's (all two of them) attention. "W-who's the guy with an ever-changing personality now?"

"Fair." Bren said, not at all irked by this comment. "Because that's actually true. I do have mood swings. Personality changes. But...I will _never _go back to being the person I was once. That worthless, green-eyed sycophant. Acting like everything was his plaything, but still remaining servile to everyone else. At least, until…" Bren trailed off and huffed. "Nevermind. But he is gone. _That _I made sure of."

"Green eyes?" The Knight asked. "But your eyes are...err...okay, I can't believe I didn't notice how weird that was before." He tilted his head like an artist trying to understand an obscure painting. "One of your eyes is orange, and the other is a dark brown. How does that work exactly? Do humans normally have eyes like that?"

"I'm not _human, _you dolt." Bren spat. "I'm actually from a species of humanoids called…hold it. Did you say one of my eyes was _brown?"_

"Yes." The Knight replied. "I assumed that was natural, and-"

"No…" Bren whispered. "Brudo...that of a bitch. That little bastard. His words actually got to me and I…and I didn't even notice it! DAMMIT!" He screeched in anger, causing the Attendant to try and slip free again. "Oh, what I wouldn't give to kill him again right now. That's it! If I can't get him, then it's time to go back on my word! His entire worthless family is going to-"

'Now.' The Knight thought, and he gripped the knife's handle, whipped it out, and threw it at Bren's head as hard as he could. He was done with the conversation, done with the phone calls, done with these "inconsistencies", and done with everything else. Mewni's enemy had been in his sights this whole time, and it was finally time to act, not react.

And then it all happened too fast. Bren saw the knife coming at him and moved to put the Attendant's head in its path instead of his own, but they had plans of their own, although it was completely unrelated to the weapon currently flying at them. Earlier, they remembered that there was one more button. A button that was rather hard to reach, as it was activated by breaking a handle of one of the drawers attached to the inside of the desk. An odd addition, but one that the Mayor requested be installed, once he had seen the idea on a television show. Everyone else thought it was a stupid idea as breaking the handle was a lot harder than it looked, but the Mayor's word was law and thus it had to be done.

But when the handle broke, it activated a blaring alarm that was spread across the entire building, and basically meant "danger, everyone get out or you will die". It was a last resort option, considering the extensive list of regulations that it had for usage, but the Attendant figured that it was now or never. They would have slapped themselves for forgetting about it earlier, if Bren didn't have a dagger at their throat.

But now was the time to act, just like the Knight had. Would Bren kill them for this? The Attendant figured the answer was a definite yes. But they also knew that Bren was going to kill them anyways, judging by the way he spoke. He didn't care about their life. He might not even care for his own. His only thought was of revenge. And considering they had already made that phone call earlier…he wasn't in any mood to spare them, regardless of whether the old man did what he said or not.

They wanted to do one final thing before they died. So they did. They reached their leg up and slammed their foot into the handle just as the knife left the Knight's hand.

Bren moved their head.

A phone clattered as it hit the ground.

The handle snapped.

The alarm rang out.

And a body slumped to the floor.

* * *

If Star could define in one word how she felt right now, it would be...infuriated. Yes. Infuriated. Because her worst enemy, the person who had caused her so much pain, the _monster _that had beaten Marco to death was standing right in front of her, looking smug as-

as...

Actually, scratch that. He didn't look smug at all. His eyes were dead inside, a blank expression casting itself into his face. But that somehow made it even worse. He was staring at her like a how a police officer might stare at a criminal they were about to interrogate. And that wasn't the only thing that set him off. His currently dead eyes were also...mismatched now? One was the usual orange, and the other was a dark green. A trait that Star hadn't seen in him before, but also one that was nothing but a mild oddity to her. Whatever it was, it couldn't be more important than whatever his reason for coming was.

"_You." _She growled, gritting her teeth together so intensely that they almost cracked under the pressure.

"_Me_." Bren deadpanned, a small bloodstain adorning the front of his clothes. His tone clearly indicated that he wasn't in the mood to make small talk, something that he had been so fond of in the past. "Hello Butterfly. I need to-"

"_Don't move." _A voice to his right said. Bren looked and saw Moon standing there, a hairpin in her right hand, placed between two of her fingers like a makeshift spike. The former Queen showed no signs of fear at his presence, and was clearly ready to stab Bren in the face with it at the slightest hint that he might attack. "How dare you-"

"Shut up, I'm not here for you." Bren said, waving her off. "You don't have to worry about anything. I'm not here to hurt your precious daughter, so you can put that useless pin away."

Moon did nothing of the sort, only deepening her expression. Her first instinct when she saw Bren was to rip his head off with her bare hands, considering that he did not appear to have Thomas accompanying him at the moment. But after she remembered what happened to Marco, Moon figured that Bren himself was likely some sort of capable fighter, and attacking him without a _proper_ plan would be folly.

River also didn't attack, possibly for the same reasons, but it was clear that he was showing a great deal of restraint in the process. His fists were trembling along with the rest of his body as he shook in pure rage. This...this was the abomination who had caused his daughter to be put into the hospital. It didn't matter if some "God of flame" was the one who possessed Marco, because that God likely wouldn't even be here if not for Bren. River glanced to the side and saw one of the chairs, and temptation almost took over. Fantasies of him beating the abomination to death with a chair like some sort of common street rat took over his mind, and anyone looking at him could tell _exactly _what he was thinking of doing. His expression said it all.

"Good. Now then." Bren said, moving his attention back to Star. "Butterfly. I'm going to make this quick. I'm in a rather bad mood, so I'm just going to cut straight to the point. I know you know about Demon Magic, and I know your parents know, and I know that Moon probably wants to use it to defeat me and save the town. Right?"

"Uh…" Star said, anger turning to confusion as she wondered how he could possibly know all that.

Bren read her expression like a book and rolled his eyes. "Come on, what the hell else would you be discussing?" He asked rhetorically. "And we all know Moon isn't one to pass up an opportunity to take power, so I think it's obvious I'm aware of what she had to say about-"

"I wasn't going to _take power." _Moon spat, obviously not in the mood to explain her reasoning to someone else after painfully reciting it to Star. "I was planning to use it to help and repair the town." Her expression darkened. "And rid it of you."

"It wouldn't work. _He _wouldn't let you do that." Bren said confidently.

"He? Who is he?" Moon queried, before realization struck. "Hold on, are you talking about that god of fire you work for?"

"Oh thank god, you figured it out. I was worried I'd have to explain it to you." Bren said in exasperation. "Yeah, since he controls Demon Magic, he controls who uses it, and since…" Bren paused mid-sentence, and then looked away before groaning. "Whatever. You get the idea. You can't use it to beat me, since I'm his agent, yadda yadda yadda."

Star tilted her head after he said this, her bewilderment at what he was saying now turned up to eleven. This was definitely not Bren. There was no grandstanding. There was no arrogance in his voice. He wasn't putting on some evil grin. He wasn't describing everything in detail like a cliche villain. He just seemed...bored. Like, actually bored and tired of all of this. It was a side of him Star hadn't seen before.

'I think that the color of his eyes may _actually_ be important…' She thought, going back in her earlier assumption. 'If his whole aloof mood is because of it. I don't think he's even going to hurt us. Not because he's "saving for it later", but because he just can't be bothered to right now!'

"Now that that's over with, I want to discuss the main reason I came here." Bren said. For starters, I-"

"PREPARE YOURSELF FOR BATTLE!" River's voice suddenly screeched, and everyone turned to see him standing there, the chair he was previously sitting in held above his head like a sledgehammer, and with a gaze so full of rage that if looks could kill, all of Earthni would be dead.

Moon and Star simultaneously facepalmed, the two security guards from earlier took out their phones to record the whole thing, and Bren merely blinked at River, narrowed his eyes, then turned back to Star. "Right." He said, not at all interested in a fight right now. "Anyways, I came here to discuss the whole issue of Demon Magic. First off, I think you should know that with the info I just divulged, the whole teleportation spell was a courtesy. Second, you-"

"Um...did you not hear me?" River asked, his arms lowering to the floor. "I said prepare yourself for battle!"

"I know. I ignored you entirely." Bren said. "But me and your daughter are currently in the middle of a conversation, and I'm not in the mood to fight you after the last one, so for _all _our sakes...how about you go wait outside?" He suggested, pointing a thumb at the door.

"Wait outside?!" River screamed. "You expect a Johansen like me to wait outside when the enemy is right in front of him?! It doesn't matter what you came here to do! I have been waiting a long time for this moment, and-"

"Have you though?" Bren asked. "How long have I even been in town? Week and a half maybe? Less than that? And how long have you been aware of my existence?"

"..."

"Thought so." Bren said. "You're just pissy because Star's hurt. And I understand. Truly, I do. But don't make this meeting any harder than it has to be. I already wasted too much time in the lobby with that Attendant and the old man, so this...is not needed."

"Wait, what did you do in the lobby?" Star demanded. "Those guards told me you killed someone!"

"Yeah...but that was only to save my own skin. At least, the first kill was." Bren acknowledged. "The rest just got in the way, and so I did what I usually do whenever I encounter a problem. Just get rid of it."

Star silently gasped and shot daggers at him, but remained sitting in the bed. She was smart enough to know that she probably wouldn't stand a chance against him even if she wasn't in the hospital. Especially if Tom was-

Wait.

She looked around the room, and then out the door. More people rushed by, but nobody was standing near the doorway, like they were avoiding it at all costs.

"Where's Tom?" She asked accusingly. "What did you do to him?"

"I didn't do anything. He's currently laying down on a bench." Bren revealed. "He got punched through a wall by the Knight the hospital hired to protect it, and that kinda took him out of commission for a while."

"...Are you serious? That's all it took?" Star said quizzingly. "You're saying he got smacked through a wall and couldn't get back up again?"

"Yeah, I personally think he's putting on an act, but since that Knight never actually managed to land a hit on me, it could be either-or." Bren said. "Plus, I don't think he's dumb enough to try and trick me...not after the close call he had back at Mansion Avarius."

"The hospital hired a _Knight?" _Moon interjected. "Where is he?"

"Relax, I don't think he was one of yours. His armor had the symbol of the Jaggy kingdom on it." Bren revealed. "As to where he is…you're going to have to be a little more specific." He then mumbled. "_He's_ _kinda spread around."_

"Enough of the small talk!" River shouted furiously. "You are the enemy! We should be fighting you to the death, not engaging in civil conversation!" He raised his chair up again. "Bren, for what you have done against my daughter, Marco, and this town, I will defeat you here with this chair, like a _true _Johans-"

"You remind me so much of him…" Bren mumbled, shaking his head.

"What was that?" River asked.

"The Knight from the lobby." Bren explained. "Never actually got his name, unfortunately, would have made talking to him a lot easier. But he was like you." He cleared his throat and started doing a mockery of the knight's voice, sounding somewhat like an enraged armadillo trying to speak. "I'm going to defeat you Bren. Today you will die an honorable death, despite the fact that I constantly go back and forth with the honor thing for whatever reason." He sighed. "I've heard it before River. So if you're going to attack me, just do it so we can get this over with. This whole trip of mine has been nothing but a nonsensical disaster, and I'm sure _everyone _would like to get it over with as soon as possible."

"I…" River stuttered, and then he hesitated and fell silent. Despite the fact that Bren had personally given him an invitation to attack, he could no longer bring himself to just blindly charge in like this. His arms were slowly lowered to the floor as he thought it over, once again wondering if now was truly the best time to strike.

'He's right there.' River thought. 'No more than five feet away. But Moon is even closer. Why hasn't she attacked? She may not have her armor or swords, but I've seen her handle foes ten times larger herself! None of us should be cowering away from this! We have to attack now! For what he did to my family, we must-'

"River." Moon whispered, her voice deadly serious. "Don't do anything until the proper moment."

River sucked his breath in at this order from his wife, finally understanding why she hadn't attacked. She wasn't afraid. She wasn't being cowardly. She was just waiting for the right opportunity. After all, the confines of the room were minuscule compared to how it was earlier, what with all the added visitors. One wrong move could cause tremendous collateral damage. One misplaced punch could go flying where it shouldn't, like Star or the devices she was hooked up to. This was not an arena. This was not a place for battle, and with Moon's warning, River understood that.

But.

But he still couldn't stand by and do _nothing. _His gaze darted over to the one window in the room. Cheap and breakable glass. A single punch from him would be sufficient to shatter it. It'd certainly be a shame if someone was, say, pushed through? Into the outside, which was a far superior and safer place to hold a fight?

Yes, such a shame…

As River began mapping everything out in his head, Bren turned away and went back to Star again, who was clutching her bedsheets so tightly her knuckles were a pale white. "Okay. Enough of the sidetracking." He said. "First off, I want to know how much _you _know about Demon Magic."

"Yeah? Well, give me one reason why I should tell you anything." Star growled. "If you were here to kill us, you'd have done it already. And you _yourself _already said you weren't here for a fight. I don't think you're going to start swinging at us in order to get what you want."

"Maybe so. But you should know there are other ways of encouragement I know that doesn't involve "taking a swing" at _you_." Bren fumed. "Let's see what we have. I could go outside and kill some patients. I could go back home, come back with another barrel, and blow up this hospital. Or…now here's a fun one." He pondered. "I could take out your worthless friend Janna, the one who I now regret freeing from the hospital, for _everything_ she's-"

As he said this last part, Bren took another step closer to Star, resulting in Moon smoothly stepping in front of her. Bren paused mid-sentence and glared at the former queen, who didn't even flinch under the gaze.

"Don't come anywhere near my daughter." She spat. "If all you want to do is talk, then so be it. But I don't care about what you've done or what you _can _do, and if you take another step toward her, then I-"

"You'll _what?" _Bren asked, unimpressed with her threats. "Let me ask you something before you continue Moon. Where were you all those times?"

"What?"

"_Where were you?" _Bren repeated. "This is hardly the first meeting between me and your daughter after all. I could have killed her so many times and you wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. Hell, in our _first _encounter, she literally accepted my invitation to meet in person! But if you had been there to help her, to _guide _her like you should as a parent, you'd never have let her go. But she did, and I could have murdered her right then and there. You've basically abandoned her along with everyone else in your life. Well, besides River, but he doesn't count."

Moon's expression darkened. "What's the point of all this-"

"The _point _is that's it's a bit too late to start making threats." Bren said. "You did nothing during the demon attack. You weren't at Mansion moron along with the rest of the townsfolk. You were back at home. You should have heard all that destruction going on. But what did you do? You sat there and did _nothing. _Like a _coward_." He spat.

"HOW DARE YOU!" River screamed, pushing his wife aside and getting in Bren's face, who didn't shy away in the slightest at the sight of the Johansen King stomping towards him. The two scowled at each other as rage overtook all of River's earlier planning, their faces now only a few inches apart. "YOU DARE INSULT MY WIFE LIKE THAT?! YOU'RE JUST A-"

"Enough!" Moon yelled, putting her hands on River's and Bren's chests and forcefully pushing them apart. "River, again, now is _not _the time for this! Look around you! This is not the place to get into an altercation!"

"That doesn't matter!" River protested. "I can't sit by and watch him demean!""

"I've endured insults ten times worse than _that." _Moon scoffed. "Let him say what he wants, and then you..." She leaned in and whispered into his ear. "...can finish planning whatever it is you were thinking up just a minute ago."

Moon then reared back, leaving River wondering how she knew he was plotting something. But a thought for later. She had given him an order, one that would still work out in his favor in the end, and so he was going to follow it, all his rage pushed aside by the power of his wife. He retreated back into a corner, putting on the same "thinking" face that earlier alerted Moon to the fact that he was up to something. He didn't stop the grumbling though, which was just quiet enough to be inaudible.

Bren, meanwhile, stared down at the part of his shirt that Moon had touched, and then looked at her like she dirtied it. "Please don't touch me again." He said. "Even if it's to get your psycho husband away from me, I don't need anyone like _you-_"

"Trust me, I would have let him tear you apart if it weren't for our location. I didn't do anything for _you_." Moon said. "And you know just as well as the rest of us that starting a fight in here would be foolish. Don't start making threats." She seethed, throwing his own words back at him. "Because if you _do _attack, I promise we won't hold back."

"Adorable." Bren deadpanned. "Moon, I don't care if you don't hold back. I never saw you as a formidable opponent. Not because you're not strong, but because of all the stuff I said earlier. About how you're a coward who sits at home all day doing nothing." He cleared his throat again. "In fact, let's go back to that. You haven't helped. You haven't helped in...how long, was it? Oh right, forever!" He shouted, as if Moon's lack of assistance with the town's problem had become personal.

"You are easily the most useless Royal out of all of them. Even more so then that stupid horn head." Bren said. "And that's definitely saying something. Because you had your chances. You had so many chances to help out, but you _didn't. _What do you hope to accomplish with this Demon Magic anyways? What do you _personally _hope to gain if you manage to kill me with it?"

"Besides the satisfaction of seeing you die after everything you've done…" Moon hissed. "I'm trying to help. Maybe I am a bit late with it. But I just had this conversation with Star, and I'm going to give you the same answer I gave her. I want to redeem myself. Payback what I've taken. I'm not looking to be some great glorified hero. I want to make up for past misdeeds and be done with it _and_ you."

"And I wonder how that's gonna go." Bren said, rolling his eyes. "Face it. You can't please everyone. It won't matter if you kill me. It won't matter if you do in front of thousands of people on live television. You'll always be remembered as the person who almost caused the extinction of monster kind. With Mina gone, they have to have _someone _to blame."

"That's not how history works." Star interjected. "If my mom does some good as her last action, then that's what they'll remember her for. The things that a person is famous for really depends on timing."

"Since when do _you _care?" Bren asked. "I'd assume you hate her after everything she did. Not to mention how mad you probably were after Moon described her plan to use Demon Magic. Because a plan like that shows that she really hasn't learned anything from the last magical crisis, yes?"

"We were still talking it out when you arrived. Don't act like you were here listening in" Star said. "And I don't hate my mom. I've been trying to help her! Get her to meet new people! I don't even think that many people hate her anymore! They blame Mina, and they're always going to blame her even if she's dead."

"Is _that _how you think it works?" Bren queried, looking ready to laugh at Star's claims. "Then riddle me this. Let's say that you somehow defeat me. Demolish my Sanctuary. Execute me in front of the whole town. Repair everything and make it a misdemeanor to say my name public. Let's say _allllll _that happens." He hummed. "But there's a loose end. A missing piece that you haven't thought of. And it's what are you going to do to Lucitor?"

"Tom?" Star mumbled. "What are you playing-"

"Tom has done quite a few things for me. Terrible things. Things that'll keep him up at night even if I break control." Bren bragged. "I'm sure I've scarred that boy for life. Even a demon can only handle so much."

"Don't talk about him. You don't get too." Star fumes. "Whatever it is you're holding against, whether it's his parents, his Kingdom, or something else entirely, we'll take it out of your clutches, and I'll make sure that you get what's coming to-"

"But what will you do after?" Bren asked. "It's now a well-known fact that I have Tom on my side. It was literally part of that speech the Duumvirate made a few days ago. They're all on the lookout for him. As well as any other demons. And I've heard rumors…" He whispered. "That people are blaming him for the demon attack. That it was all _his _fault."

"What?!" Moon exclaimed. "That's ludicrous. The townsfolk and the Royals know full well that you're controlling him. They would never-"

"Wanna bet?" Bren interjected. "Let me tell you something Moon. The humans and Mewmans that make up Earthni are some of the most paranoid in the entire damn dimension. Always looking over their shoulders since the Merge, like they're waiting for someone to rob them out of nowhere. Wanna know why? Because they're all afraid of the fact that Earthni is one of a kind in this world, and the constant daily shitstorm that this fact brings with it!" He explained. "Imagine the kind of stress that brings. You live in a weird little town with castles standing side-by-side along skyscrapers, and you don't think people are going to think "hey, maybe this _isn't _the most desirable place to live anymore. Why can't I go back to the days when this _wasn't_ the number one tourist destination in the world, and news hacks weren't interviewing every single person they saw, regardless of importance? Why can't I go back to living my normal life?" I'm not sure if any of you noticed, but the first few months were a total _nightmare _for this place's original inhabitants."

"I…" Moon stuttered, struck dumb by this rant. Out of all the people to give her a lecture on how bad the "normal" people of Echo creek and Mewni had it since the merge, Bren was certainly not the one she expected to do it. "Well, you may make a few good points, but-"

"Uh uh uh uh uh, not finished yet." Bren interrupted. "From what I've seen, life for the common person in this town is an absolute hell. Even a walk to the _grocery store_ is an obstacle course! I simulated that experience by the way. I went from one side of the town to the grocery store on the other, just to see how it was like. Well, actually, I was mapping out the town, but I got a few "other" things out of it." He scoffed, air quotes and all.

"Let me tell what I saw." He continued. "First things first, tourists. _Everywhere. _And you can always tell. Somehow, the tourists are even stupider than the actual natives, and of course that makes it worse. But the _questions." _He groaned, and then started putting on a voice. "Do you know how to get here? Can you tell me about magic! Ah! What is that? Is that a monster! I thought it was just a bunch of people in rubber suits when I saw it on the news!" Bren chuckled slightly after this, although there was hardly any humor in that laugh. "It was annoying in the extreme. Not to mention disrespectful. Can you imagine if I had actually been a person who lived in this fucking town? Let me tell you, the streets would be lined with the corpses of those idiots by the end of the day."

"...Wait, are you serious?" Star asked, who was getting by and more intrigued by Bren's explanation of why Earthni was a terrible place to live. "Rubber suits?! That's what they think of monsters?!"

"That's right!" Bren said, nodding. "And when they finally saw a monster, and walked up to him…" He sighed softly and tapped his foot. "Gods, I don't even know if I want to say this next part…"

"No, I want to hear it." Star said, her eyes flashing with anger. "I've never been aware of any of this kind of stuff going on, and if monsters are being mistreated, then I need to know so me and Eclipsa can fix it."

"Erm...Star." Moon said slowly. "I think it would be best to focus on the other problem at hand before we work on that...the problem that is currently _standing _in the room with us-"

"No, if she wants to hear this, then I'm not going to disappoint!" Bren interjected. "Even if it's _her_, nice to see that _someone _finally cares about this problem."

"Why do you even care about the lives of our citizens?" Moon asked. "You just murdered hundreds of them!"

"Because _I _came from a place where shit like that is what you saw on a daily basis. One that most people I knew became a victim of. Despite the fact that I detest this town and everyone in it, that doesn't mean I'm going to stand by and watch the same thing happen all over again. It's..._personal._"

"So you're saying it's _personal_?" River queried incredulously. "_That's_ your reasoning?"

"I'd be lying if I said it was anything else." Bren stated. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to give the person who I loathe most what she wants to hear." He turned back to Star. "So when they saw their first monster, one of Buff Frog's children in fact, they walked up to him, held out their hand, and offered them a piece of _food."_

"...I don't see what's so bad about that!" River exclaimed. "I'll take free food any day, and-"

"Oh, but it was what they said next that really showed what they were thinking." Bren scoffed. "They said, and I'm not lying, this is what I heard…"do you want a treat?" Yeah. Let that sink in for a moment."

"What are you…oh...oh no" Star stuttered, almost throwing up right then and there. Someone...someone said that to one of Buff Frog's _children_?! Like they were some kind of animal? Why was she only hearing about this now, and from her most hated enemy of all people?! She whipped her head toward her bucket by the side of the bed, and was about to grab it before Bren spoke again.

"And guess what they did next?" Bren prattled. "When Buff Frog's kid didn't take it, and politely asked the other kid to leave them alone, they ran back to their parents, complaining about how the "wildlife" was mean. _Wildlife." _Bren gasped. "Like all monsters are animals. Lower-life forms with barely functioning brains. Pets, if anything. And despite the dozens of signs you guys put up on the edges of the city before you opened it up to non-natives, saying that monsters were people, and were just as intelligent as everyone else, the tourists still treated them like literal zoo animals."

"…"

"Yeah." Bren said. "It really sucks. But let me tell you how-"

"...More." Star whispered.

"What?"

"_More." _She repeated. "Tell me _everything _you know about how the monsters and Mewmans in this town are being treated! I don't care if half of Earthni is currently on fire. I don't care if it comes from your mouth. I'm not going to allow a bunch of people who have never even _seen _monsters before to treat them like this. Once we get rid of you, I swear I will have Eclipsa every single law she can that'll ensure nothing can-"

"Star, _stop_." Moon interjected, making everyone in the room besides River and the two security guards glare at her. "He's just trying to rile you up with his. None of what he just said is true. It's all a lie."

"Mom, I'm going to try and say this in the most polite way possible." Star growled. "Be quiet. Don't change the subject away from this. Monsters didn't survive the Solarians and Mina's little posse only to be treated like this by a bunch of outsiders! And this...no. I don't think it's a lie. Because it makes sense the longer I think about it. Of _course _monsters wouldn't be treated equally by newcomers! Even after all the signs and warnings we put up, we should have none of it would do a damn thing! Why hasn't Buff Frog or anyone else come to us about this?! Why-"

"Because it's _not _true!" Moon repeated. She pointed at Bren, who glanced at her hand like she was pointing a gun at him. "What did I just say Star? It's all a lie! I've been in town! I've seen tourists and what they do to monsters. And they do _absolutely _nothing! They walk past them, maybe take a photo or strike a conversation, but that's it! It's nowhere near as bad as Bren made it out to be!"

"How do you know that?!" Star asked. "When have you ever paid attention to someone else on one of your walks?! You're trying to get home as fast as possible, and that's it! A literal shootout could be happening and you'd walk right on by!"

"To be fair, if there was a shootout going on, I'd walk right past it too." Bren said, peaking over Moon's shoulder. "Basically just asking to get shot if you try and stop it."

"You're not involved in this anymore!" Moon hissed.

"I'm feeling pretty involved."

"Don't you two start!" Star shouted, facepalming with both palms. "If you're going to bicker at each other, do it outside!"

"Wha-what are you saying?!" Moon shouted. "Star, you're acting like he's just some nuisance and not a person who murdered hundreds of people just yesterday, and someone that wants to kill you and everyone else!" She scolded, the veins on her forehead suddenly becoming very prominent. "Again, the only reason he's not dead on the floor right now is because of our location. Why are you acting like-"

"Is he not exactly that?" Star shrugged. "A nuisance? Just like Mina? Something we have to take care of?"

"D-did you just compare me to _Mina?" _Bren screeched, his calm tone switching to pissed in an instant. "Oh no. Oh nononononononono! Alright, I wanted this to be quick, in and out so I could tell you not to use Demon Magic otherwise I'll have Tom kill everyone in the Monster Temple, but _that _is a step too far!" He seethed. "How dare you compare me to that-"

"Well, you're no better than her!" Star said. "She was prejudiced against monsters, you're prejudiced against an entire _dimension_!"

"How long until you…" Bren muttered. "I don't hate the Earth. Anything I've done to its people outside of this town is just so they won't get in my way! If I wanted to kill everyone on the planet or some nonsense like that, I'd have done it already! The Underworld has enough weird Demon Magic devices to block out the sun or something crazy like that for centuries! And if _that _didn't work, I'd storm the Oval Office again and force the president to nuke everything!"

"Storm it _again?!" _Moon gasped. "What do you mean by again? Do you and the government have some kind of agreement? Is that why nobody's coming to our aid?!"

"Ugh, guess that cat's out of the bag…" Bren groaned. "Sure. Yeah. I forced the government to bow down or else I'd have Tom and my army of demons destroy everything. I have the entire country running scared with his teleporting powers!"

"Of course..." Star mumbled, her eyes bugging out at this revealed. "No wonder we haven't seen any scientists or researchers or government agents for months. You forced them all to leave!" She accused. "Are you going to have them attack us? Do your dirty work for you?"

"Fuck no!" Been exploded, his one orange eye flaring up. "I'd never let them sent in a bunch of second-rate, deceitful, corrupt, worthless, trigger-happy-"

"You bastard…" Moon seethed, clenching her fists. "You've completely cut us off from the world? Do...do you have any idea what you've done?! Have you even seen what we're dealing with outside?!" She stomped towards him and got in his face just like River did, bits of spittle flying everywhere. "There are thousands of people suffering because of what you did! And now you're saying you made it so that we're unable to ever get outside help?!"

"...Yeah. Yeah, that about sums it up." Bren said, irked by how close the former Queen was to him. "And yes. I have been outside. I've seen _all _of it. But I don't need a mortality lesson from you. I've already set my path in stone. No amount of death is going to sway me from doing this, and if you think that a few people begging for help is going to make me change _any _of what I have planned...then you're just as moronic as Mina was."

"I still remember you know." Moon said, narrowing her eyes. "Back at the meeting. When you hung Penelope out of that window just because you could. And walked around like you owned the place simply because you had Thomas on your side."

"And _I _remember you sitting there doing nothing. Like always." Bren forced a grin. "Although we just had that conversation, didn't we Moon? Then we talked about how horrible life was for monsters, argued a bit, and here we are. You wanna do that all over again? I'm fine with it, as long as you…" He shrugged. "...calm down a little. Because if I'm being honest, outbursts like this are kinda uncharacteristic for you, and I'm not sure I like it."

"Everyone has a breaking point. Mine was just shattered the second you stepped in the door." Moon stated. "Maybe it is unusual for me to be angry like this. But I've turned murderous towards people for far less. For corn's sake, I tried to blow up a family with pie bombs simply because they wouldn't leave me and my husband alone!"

"...Did you make that last part up?" Bren asked.

"Figure it out for yourself." Moon hissed. "Considering that I'm sure you "know everything about us"." She mocked.

"I don't know "everything about you", just what's necessary." Bren said. "Although...if I _had _known about the pie thing earlier…" He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "...yeah. I probably would have found a way to use that against you. But you did really kill that family with those pies? I _actually _wanna know how that story ends…"

"...Yes." Moon lied, knowing that Bren might do something obnoxious to them if he found out that they were still alive. Try and use her own past against her. "They're long dead. And ten years from now, I'll have a smile on my face every time I say the same thing about you."

"I'm shaking in my boots." Bren sighed sarcastically. "You can threaten me ominously all you want Moon, but it won't change the fact that I am currently _A_, winning, and _B, _winning by a _lot. _I'm not sure if you've noticed, but basically every "victory" you've won against me was because I allowed it." His gaze darted towards Star. "Butterfly, I know I might have said at the beginning that I wanted a good challenge, but that was only because-"

"I don't care." Star interjected. "It doesn't matter if-"

"_Now."_

"Huh?" Star said, looking to her left, where she saw River standing there, his face so red that it was almost purple in color. Star wasn't sure what his problem was, until she saw his hands, which were shaking like he was holding off the urge to throttle something.

'Oh Mewni...' She thought. 'Dad, please don't do anything stupid. Not again. If you guys fight and land top of me or something, I'm pretty sure I'd die. Please don't fight and make this worse than it already is.'

As if she had any say in the matter. Especially considering that none of that was said out loud.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that, you're going to have to speak up." Bren said, fully unaffected by River's grape face. "Did you say something? I think it was-"

"NOW!" River bellowed, and then with all the speed and force of a charging elephant, he leaped forward and snatched Bren into a bear hug, turned to _his_ right, and sprinted towards the window. Three voices rang out over River's roars, all of them equally frantic.

"DAD!"

"RIVER!"

"GET OFF ME YOU PSYCHOTIC-"

Too late. With one final push, River leaped towards the window with all the grace of a ballerina with two broken legs, while Bren's expression shifted into one of terror as the two of them slammed into the glass pane and shattered it instantly. They and hundreds of shards of glass flew out of the newly made opening and fell three stories straight to the ground with a dull _thud_, which in this case was the hospital's parking lot.

As the two of them vanished from sight, Moon let out a cry of anguish for her husband, knowing full well that such a fall could severely injure even him. She ran to the window and looked down, while Star just stared wide-mouthed, shocked that he father had actually gone for it.

"River!" Moon shouted. "Are you…" She stopped mid-sentence, momentarily baffled by the sight before her. River was on his back, panting like he had run a marathon rather than jumped out a window, and Bren was beside him, his left arm twisted at an odd angle, twitching, moaning, and clearly in immense pain. Moon's first response to this was to breathe a sigh of relief as she saw her husband was alright, and the enemy was incapacitated.

'Must have used Bren to cushion his landing.' She thought, before stepping back and taking a deep breath. 'But there's no time to dwell on that. I have to get down there. Bren may have a broken arm, but Tom is still somewhere nearby. I can't take any chances. The time to act is _now._"

Without saying a word, Moon turned around and ran out of the room, ignoring Star's cries for her to come back. She slid her way past hundreds of patients, doctors, and other people that she had no concern for. All of them were still slowly trying to get out of the hospital, unaware that the main threat was currently lying down outside in a near unconscious state. Once she made it to the stairwell, she jumped down the steps five at a time and made it to the ground floor in less than ten seconds, none the worse for wear.

Twenty seconds later, after dodging everyone that ran past her like an out-of-control chimpanzee, she made it back to the lobby, and gasped at what she saw. The Desk Attendant was slumped over, their eyes dead with a gigantic cut across their neck. A knight wearing the crest of the Jaggy kingdom, presumably the same one that Bren talked about earlier, was passed out on the floor, bleeding from a large head wound that looked like someone had thrown a bowling ball at him. He also had a dagger sticking out of the back of his neck that had been embedded in his spine, presumably the killing blow. Moon simply grit her teeth in rage and ran outside, but not before making sure to grab the weapon. Something told her that she was going to need it.

Once she got outside however, she froze before she even made it five feet out the door.

Because Tom was standing there, looking quite hurt, rubbing the back of his head and leaning against the wall. He was clearly done resting on whatever bench Bren has shoved him onto, and was no doubt waiting for his master's return. The two spotted each other and Tom froze as well, turning still as a statue.

"..."

"..."

"I am so sorry about this Thomas." Moon said.

"Sorry about wha-" Tom started, but before he could get any further, Moon's left foot impacted on the side of his head and slammed the other side into the wall of the hospital with all the force and strength of a sledgehammer. Tom didn't make a single sound as he slumped to the pavement, out like a light for the second time.

"_Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry…" _Moon repeated, as she moved past him the second she confirmed his unconsciousness. She hated doing that, but it was necessary. If Moon had ignored him and sprinted away, he likely would have followed, seen Bren with a broken arm, and protected him from her and River. Bren probably didn't need both arms to use whatever leverage he had against Tom, so unfortunately the demon was an obstacle that had to be taken care of. Hopefully that kick didn't leave too much permanent damage...but she was aiming it to knock him out in the quickest way possible.

She just decided to push it aside for now and focus on the bigger problem.

Turning a corner, she saw Bren and River about twenty feet away, in the same positions from earlier, only River had stopped panting and Bren was trying to crawl away from him. Moon almost smiled at the sight of that, Mewni's oh-so-arrogant enemy broken and battered on the ground. She jogged towards River and kneeled down besides him, and he responded by opening his eyes and smiling.

"Did I get him?" He asked weakly. "The fall knocked the wind out of me. I'm having a hard time checking my surroundings."

"Oh thank…" Moon started, before enveloping her husband in a hug. He tried to return it but failed, and merely let out a small huff in response. "I'm so glad you're alright River. When I saw you leap out that window, I was so scared. I didn't know what was below it or if Bren could shrug the fall off or-"

"Speaking of which, did I get him?" River repeated. "Please tell me I did. I'm hoping I didn't do that all for nothing."

"You…" She glanced at Bren, who was busy clutching his shattered arm and wincing. "Definitely got him." Moon nodded, as she contemplated her next move. As much as she wanted to stay here and help River, she had to finish what he started first. She couldn't give Bren any chance to get away, even in his current condition. "River, do you think you can wait here? I'm going to go finish the job."

"Of course. You don't have to worry about me leaving." River chuckled. "I...don't think I can. Now go and do it. I personally didn't think that fall would kill him, but I knew that you would be there to end it in case anything went wrong."

Moon nodded again in response and then got back up, turning the dagger in her hand so that it was in a stabbing position. Her husband had basically given

her permission to leave him and kill Bren, and she wasn't about to let that go to waste. She meticulously approached him, each step filling her with a sense of pride.

This...

This was it. After all that talk...after all those deaths...she'd finally be the one to end it. No holding back. No mercy. One fell swoop, and it'll be over.

Bren saw her approaching and groaned. "Lucitor!" He called out. "I could use your _assistance_ right about-"

"He's not coming." Moon growled. "I kicked his head against the side of the hospital. He's out cold, so you're without any help. It's just you and me."

"Ah, come on, but there's still so much we need to talk about!" Bren said, stalling. "We didn't finish talking about what a terrible ruler and mother you are, Demon Magic, how the _scientists_ treat the monsters of the town…all that! We sidetracked a lot, so I think we should use this quality time to-"

"Be quiet." Moon deadpanned, raising her foot up and kicking him in the face with it. She recoiled a second later, her foot suddenly aching like she had hit it with a hammer. It was like kicking a concrete wall, and Moon was briefly stunned by how durable he was. But it certainly did some damage back. Bren recoiled from the blow and spat out some blood, which was an extremely dark..._blue _in color?

To the former Queen's surprise, Bren's blood was visibly a darkish-blue in hue, something that she hadn't seen or even heard of in any human, Mewman, or monster. She asked him to question him on it, before realizing that since he was going to be dead soon, and that whatever..._this _was wasn't important. She stared at the odd liquid for another moment before turning back to her main target, who was still busy trying to wipe his face clean.

"Do you think you can talk your way out of this one?" She asked, preparing herself to kick him again.

"Maybe." Bren shrugged. "I like to talk. We could postpone this little fight you know. Maybe when my arm heals, or when I have Tom-"

"You want to talk? You really want to try and work your way out of this one? Alright. I'll give you the pleasure of having a few last words." Moon said. "Back there, what did I say was the only reason you weren't already dead on the floor?"

"I…"

"Because we were in an enclosed area, and Star could get hurt if we started brawling." Moon said, before actually grinning. "And now we're out here. In a parking lot. With no one around to get hurt, except for, of course, _you._ Did you really think I wouldn't take the chance to kill you when I had it? Ever since I heard what happened to Star, that's all I've wanted. An opportunity to end your miserable existence."

"If that's true, then why didn't you tackle me out the window like your husband?" Bren asked. "Surprisingly effective, all things considered…"

"Because that would have been rash. However, now that it's happened, I'm not going to kick a gift warnicorn in the mouth." Moon seethed. She gripped the dagger together and raised it above her head. "Goodbye Bren. No more deaths. No more talk. No. More. _You."_

And with that, she swung the blade downwards, aiming directly for the center of his forehead. Bren moved his head to the side at the last second as the dagger nicked his ear and made him cry out in pain. His one good arm grabbed Moon's hand and he squeezed it as hard as he could, resulting in a loud CRACK as bone was splintered and shattered. The dagger was dropped from her hand and Bren caught it before it even hit the ground. He rolled away while the former Queen stumbled backwards, chiding herself for failing like that.

'Damn it!' Moon thought, clutching her now broken hand while Bren got up and steadied himself. 'Fool. You were a fool for trying that Moon. You got too overconfident. He may have a broken arm, but that doesn't mean he's still not any kind of threat. And now he's got a weapon...and I'm down a hand.'

"Nice try." Bren said, noticing her panicked expression and smirking. "But if you think I'm going to let this little piece of metal be the weapon that kills me, you have another thing coming. The exact same weapon I used to kill that poor Attendant...there was a reason I left it in that moron's neck."

"Compassion?" Moon scoffed/guessed, hoping that River had the strength to step in before things got worse.

"No. And my reasons are my own." Bren said. "But this was _not _how this day was supposed to go. So many unnecessary side conversations. So many things that made no sense. All leading up to this. Just you and me, duking it out. I can't say I'm not disappointed. I was hoping for something less. I wanted this to be done _hours _ago, but-"

Before he could get another word in, Bren suddenly went flying backwards from a sneak attack by Moon, who had smashed her fist into his face. The non-broken one of course. Just like with her foot, it felt like punching a brick wall reinforced with steel beams. She recoiled and tried to shake it off, albeit somewhat successfully.

'If I survive this, the first thing I'm going to do is have a talk with Ms. Ordania.' She thought. 'Star's friend seems to be the only one who truly knows anything about this Demon Magic nonsense, so hopefully she can tell why it feels like I'm beating away at a sentient wall! And also why his blood is almost blue in color.' She pondered. 'I don't think I've seen that from _any _kind of creature before...maybe she could shed some light on it after I kill him."

'You little…' Bren thought, stumbling backwards and wiping some blood away from his nose. 'Damn it. Should have seen that one coming. Was too busy monologuing. _Again._' He fumed. 'I have to take this seriously. She's right. No more talking. For _real_ this time. Because I always seem to sidetrack, no matter what. Hell, it even happened up there in the hospital room with that talk about Tom and the tourists, despite the promises I made to myself that it wouldn't happen again!'

He sighed. 'These guys just don't get it. And even if I told them, they still wouldn't. I'm trying to do the right thing here. Butterfly _deserves_ to pay for what she did. And all that time I spent spying on her...she was oh-so happy. Did she even care? Did she even think the destruction she and her careless family wrought?!'

He growled and charged, his left arm dangling uselessly behind him like an undercooked noodle. Moon began to back away as she quickly thought up a counterattack in her head, time seeming to slow down in the process.

'Don't panic. _Don't panic. _This should be easy, even with only one hand.' She thought. 'With that level of strength and durability, I don't think he was one to study any style of martial arts before coming to Earthni. No doubt he relies on raw power alone and just _assumes _it's enough to handle any enemy. Unfortunately, hitting him traditionally could potentially break my other hand, so…' Her eyes darted towards his legs. "...dirty moves it is.'

As Bren got close, he held the blade behind his back and then thrust it at the former Queen, but she ducked under his arm at the last second and slammed her leg into the back of both his ankles, sending him toppling over like a falling tree. Just like with Moon a second earlier, the knife fell from his grip and landed with a clang, allowing her to grab it once more.

'Waste no time.' She thought. 'He's on the ground. He's down. You're armed. End it. END IT NOW!' Her inner voice yelled, and she obeyed swiftly, raising the knife above her head and aiming dead center for Bren's heart.

But it was not to be.

Because at the last second, he stuck his hand out and blocked the attack, the knife sinking deep into his palm. Moon practically snarled and pushed it in further, the two now locked purely in a battle of strength.

"You-" Bren groaned, his face straining as he held her back. "You think you'll accomplish anything by killing me? If I die, more will just take my place!" He spat, spitting directly into Moon's face. "You'll lose, even if you kill me. I've planned it out so that-"

"Shut up already." Moon hissed, and she slammed the elbow of her other arm directly onto his mouth. Bren responded by kneeing her in the face, and the two tumbled backwards, Moon yanking the knife out of his hand and getting up as fast as she could.

"Damn you…" Bren groaned, weakly getting to his feet. He stared at his bleeding palm and frowned. "How...that wasn't supposed to...that dagger shouldn't have been able to…oh shit. Eyes." He gasped, much to Moon's sudden bewilderment. "The power...the connection...it's weakening."

"What are you yammering on about?" Moon coughed, holding her nose to check if it wasn't broken. "Actually, it doesn't matter. I have something to say. I have a deal to give you."

"Oh, this oughta be good." Bren said sarcastically. "Seriously though, I'm not going to make any kind of deal, so just keep trying to kill me and then we'll-"

"Surrender now, and I'll make a deal with Eclipsa so that you _don't _die from being tortured to death." Moon interjected, the only reason she was doing this at all because of her own uncertainty towards if she could still defeat Bren. "I can't guarantee anything further than that, but-"

"...Did you not hear a word I just said?" Bren asked. "Yeah, I think I'll pass on your little offer. Did you really expect it to work? Bren? Cooperation? Those are two words that I can't imagine being in the same sentence. To give up...is to lose everything." He announced. "I'd die before I'd surrender myself to you and your deplorable family."

"Oh good. Because I was hoping you'd say that." Moon lied as she cursed internally, before throwing the knife at him. Bren moved his hand again to block the attack from hitting his head, but realized a little too late that that wasn't what Moon was aiming for at all. Rather, the knife went flying toward his left knee and sunk deep into it, hitting and cracking bone and causing him to let out a high pitched wail.

"Fucking-!" Bren yelled, before taking the knife out of his leg and throwing it back at Moon. It struck her left shoulder and just barely missed her collar bone, causing her to stumble backwards and almost trip over River, who was attempting and failing to flip himself over. Bren, meanwhile, grimaced at his injured leg, and for a second Moon almost thought he looked afraid.

"Okay." He said, pushing himself up and standing on one leg. "I think I'm done here. Moon Butterfly. You are now my second least favorite person in this town. I will never forget this fight for as long as I live. Normally I would have gone after Eclipsa once I was done with your daughter, but...nah. I'm thinking I'm going to take the fake Butterflies out first. Remember this after I kill your daughter, because after her, I'm coming for you."

"Bold words from someone who can barely even stand." Moon spat, taking the knife out of her shoulder and wiping the blood of it. "If you haven't noticed, I think I have a clear advantage here. And...oh screw it." She said, tired of hearing her own voice. She rushed forward and panic flashed across Bren's eyes, who now had only one way to defend himself against a rampaging Moon. The odds were truly not in his favor anymore, and his world was crashing down on him with all the fury of the inferno he had hoped to unleash.

"_Shitshitshit-_" He repeated, as Moon got in close and prepared to stab him in the gut. Bren swung at her and tried to punch her in the throat, but the former Queen ducked under it, placed the knife in between her teeth, and then put her hand under his armpit and pushed as hard as she could. A loud POP was heard as Bren's shoulder was dislocated and another blow was sealed out. Moon took hold of the knife again and tried to slash at the top of his shoulder to ensure that it would be rendered permanently useless, but Bren hopped (tripped, really) away at the last second. This did not, however, completely exclude him from danger, and he screamed in pain as the knife instead sliced his right index finger clean off, bone and all.

And Moon almost smiled at that. However, a moment later she mentally slapped herself and shook the sadism away, reminding herself to not get cocky.

'Don't assume you'll still win.' She thought. 'Never assume you can win one hundred percent unless the enemy is already down. Yes, he's effectively useless now, but he may still have a few tricks up his sleeve. And that shoulder is only dislocated, not broken. He can still-"

With one quick move, Bren jerked the entire right side of his body upwards, providing enough leverage for his shoulder to painfully snap itself back in the proper position. He cried out and kneeled over, gritting his teeth and panting like an exhausted dog.

'...pop it back in place.' Moon finished, her own shoulder starting to feel uncomfortable at the sight. 'Okay, I'm pretty sure you can't fix a dislocated shoulder that way. Hopefully the power he was granted from that fire-god doesn't include regeneration, otherwise this fight will become a thousand times worse.'

On the other side of the battle, Bren was freaking out internally, seeing no way as to how he could get out of this one. 'This...this can't be how it ends.' He thought. 'I can't be beaten by _her! _She was hardly even in this story before now! She hardly knew anything about me at all! And now she's taking it personally because I killed a couple of people, people that she abandoned for _months?!_' He huffed. 'There has to be a way out of this. There's _always_ a way-'

Bren paused as his mind suddenly flashed back to his final encounter with Brudo, specifically the part where he was threatening Tom for the billionth time. With his device. The one that Moon knew _nothing about._

'Ohhh…' He thought, a new plan forming in his mind. 'Time to put on a good bluffing face.'

Without warning, he whipped the small black box out of his pocket and held it above his head, as if presenting it to the world. Moon stopped just as she was about to attack him again and stared at the device, unsure of what to make of it.

"What is this?" She asked. "Some final desperate ploy?"

"No, it...actually, yes. It's exactly that." Bren admitted. "I was hoping to avoid this, you know. Because I believe I made a promise back at the meeting I crashed. That I'd go easy on you guys for a while. Give you a breather. So you can either stop right there, and let me walk away, or I can go back on that promise."

"Breather-you call _this _a breather?!" Moon screeched, gesturing towards the devastated town.

"In my terms, yes." Bren said. "I could have done so much worse after all. But I decided to play nice. Only kill a small percentage of the town. Well, no more!" He shouted, and in an instant he maneuvered the device in his hand and held his middle finger over the small button embedded in it, causing Moon to actually become concerned. Because whatever this was, she knew that it was his last-ditch effort. He had admitted it himself. And if there was anything Moon learned from years of watching River fighting one-on-one matches, it was that the only thing more dangerous than an enraged enemy...was a desperate enemy.

"What are you doing?" Moon asked.

"Gambling." Bren said. "My one big "F you" to this town. Like I was saying. Breather. Small percentage. Can't kill too many people, or the town will collapse and devolve into chaos _much_ too fast for my liking. But now you've forced my hand with _this_." He turned his head to the right, looking up at the hospital. Even from the outside, they could still faintly hear everything going on inside. Panicked people. A constant stream of footsteps. Orders from doctors and security guards. All of them were melded together and formed a noise that sounded like a symphony orchestra being thrown down a flight of stairs, and made for a rather unpleasant background noise.

"You can hear them all." Bren stated. "Can't you? How many people do you think are still in that building? I haven't seen a single person exiting it despite the alarms, other than those guys in the lobby. Don't know why they stuck around and don't know why anybody new never showed up, but that's not really important now. What _is _important is what's in my hand."

"And that is?" Moon asked, taking a small step forward and carefully eyeing him.

"The trigger." Bren said, making the former Queen's eyes go wide. "What? You really think I came here without something that'd ensure I could walk away no matter who threatened me?" He shook his head. "No. No, I knew what I was getting into when I arrived. Granted, things happened that I didn't plan for, like that Knight or the waste-of-everyone's-time phone call to Globgor…"

"I'm sorry, you called _who?" _

"Globgor." Bren repeated. "I discovered that the civilians don't know I was the one who killed Mina, so I tried to call Eclipsa to get her to announce that or I'd kidnap Meteora so something." He grimaced. "Long story short, it was a gigantic waste, it should have ended earlier, and it was in no way important to the grand scheme of things. Better to just skip the whole conversation and move on to something else…"

"I'd rather skip this one." Moon said. "Get to what you were talking about a moment ago. About that trigger."

"Oh, of course." Bren said, holding the device a little higher in the air. "I planned for a lot. I suspected that something would go wrong. I _didn't _know you would be at the hospital with your husband, so I just had to make do. I knew you were a reasonable person. You wouldn't attack me on sight. Not with Star right there, injured and slowly dying, all because of a few unfortunate circumstances."

"You…...wait. Did you say that Star is _dying?" _Moon asked in horror. "What are you-"

"Oh...right…you don't know." Bren said slyly. "I suppose that makes sense. Because if Janna had told her, or known in the first place, she probably would have informed you. About how little time she has left." He glared at Moon, his orange eye starting to lighten in color. "Because your daughter...she's dying. And there is not a damn thing anyone can do to stop it."

"Th-that's not true." Moon said. "Star said that she was fine. Severely injured yes, but nothing was fatal. The doctors never-"

"The doctors don't know, but I sure as hell do. And besides, this isn't some traditional medical problem. It's divine." Bren claimed. "She was attacked by someone possessed by the fire-god. _She has his mark_. And once someone gets that mark, they always die by the time his business in whatever dimension he's overlooking is finished. No. Matter. What. It's one of the rules. One of the oldest rules in dealing with him."

"Th-that can't be true." Moon stuttered. "You're just trying to mess with me. Distract me." She scowled. "It won't work you-"

"Sudden weakness. Vomiting. Pain. Constant grogginess, despite how energetic she usually is." Bren listed. "That's what's happening to her, yes? That's how she greeted you when you arrived?"

Moon sucked her breath in. She didn't want to admit it, but the answer was, of course, yes. But how did _he_ know that? Star hadn't been close to throwing up ever since Bren arrived, apart from one exception. She hadn't mentioned how much pain she was in, or how weak she was. There was no way for him to know...unless he was actually telling the _truth?_

Moon's breathing began to quicken in pace as her brain put the pieces together, each one more malformed than the last. Bren meanwhile, started to hop backwards, taking advantage of the former Queen's distracted state.

'Oh, please let this work.' He thought. 'It's just plain luck that she's gullible enough to believe any of that. Or at least believe it long to give me enough time to make my escape. But then again, any threat against Star, even if it's an obvious fib, is enough for her stop and think things over.' He shrugged. 'Might not even need to pretend that my communication device is a bomb trigger anymore.' He took another "step" backwards and quickly looked around for anyone else, but they were alone apart from River l. Somehow, the parking lot was still entirely devoid of anyone else except for them. 'Good thing I guessed the symptoms of her daughters' so-called "impending death" correctly. Although considering the state she was in, any fool could come up with the correct answer from just one look at her. But now it's time for me to-'

"I still don't believe you." Moon announced, cutting through Bren's thoughts and scattering them. "You could have easily made all that up on the spot. Just to give me pause and allow you a chance to get away."

"Yeah? Then how did I know about what she was going through?" He asked. "I knew she was dead the second-"

"Anyone that took one glance at Star could have made _those _up too." Moon contested, unknowingly using Bren's earlier method against him. "It's obvious she's in pain and acting groggy. The vomit bucket is right next to the bed. I would have said those exact same things were I you. But the first real reason you're lying is that you would _never _allow someone else to kill my daughter, not even your precious god."

Moon flipped the knife over in her hands and began walking towards Bren, who started swearing furiously under his breath as his own impending death approached.

"I know just how much you hate her." Moon said. "I'm not entirely sure why. And if that breakdown you had back at the meeting is anything to go by, I don't think you know either. But I do know this." Moon reached out the second he was in range and shoved Bren to the ground, avoiding his pathetic attempts to stop her in the form of a failed punch. "I've fought your type before. The planners. The arrogant ones. The people who think they have their enemy in the palm of their hand, no matter what goes wrong. But if there's _anything_ they have in common, it's this."

She slammed her heel down on Bren's chest and pinned him to the ground. It was like stomping on a chunk of solid rock, but Moon didn't back down. A little pain in her foot was paltry at a moment like this.

"They would _never_ share the honor of killing their most hated enemy with someone else." Moon said, driving her heel in deeper. "They were all glory-hounds. They all thought they "deserved" to kill their opponents, because it was their right. I've seen them cut down fellow soldiers who tried to kill me simply because they didn't want my death on their comrades hands, but on theirs. And that's you."

Really? You think so?" Bren asked. "Because I'm not exactly keeping that a secret!" He then grabbed Moon's ankle and attempted to shove her off, but Moon simply scoffed and slashed at him again, leaving a long streaking cut along the back of his hand. Before Bren could even react to the pain, she lifted her other foot up and slammed it down on his wrist, pinning his one good arm to the ground. He whined in pain and tried to get up, but his stamina was long gone, and anything he had left was diminishing by the second.

"You killed Mina. You burned her followers alive." Moon continued. "And even though she'd never succeed in her plans, you still got rid of her simply because you abhorred the idea of having to-"

"She'd never succeed?!" Bren repeated incredulously. "Are you crazy?! The only reason she _didn't _is because of me! She would have assassinated Eclipsa if I hadn't tipped the police off, and sure, while I may have given her that idea in the first place, she was still capable enough to do it! That was the problem with you people back then! You always underestimated what she could do. Her followers were morons, but they were still blind loyal. They'd have slaughtered monster children, _babies _even, by the thousands if she ordered them to. That's why they listened to Brudo, despite him being a monster. Because they _had _to serve someone. None of them wanted to be a leader. It was practically in their _nature _to serve.

"Some of that may be true, but you're wrong about us underestimating her." Moon said. "We stopped underestimating Mina the second she put on that Solarian suit of armor. Even outside it and without magic, she was still a threat and-"

"Then why didn't you _kill _her then?" Bren asked. "If you knew she was a threat, if you knew how dangerous she was after the Solarian incident, why didn't you kill her? She was weak. Powerless. You had every opportunity. And all you did was shoot an arrow into her helmet? You should have caved her skull in with a rock the second she crawled out of that mech! But you didn't, and now look where it's got you." He sighed in disappointment. "That's another problem with this town. You don't eliminate a future threat when you have the chance. You didn't kill Mina. Star didn't kill Ludo after his castle blew up. You never successfully hunted down and killed Toffee like the rest of the Septarians. Seems you just gave up on that for whatever reason. And you didn't kill baby Meteora after she had been reverted to an infant by Eclipsa's spell!"

"I wasn't even there for most of those!" Moon claimed. "And I thought Toffee was dead! We tortured one of his soldiers and the MHC believed he was telling the truth. If I had known that my _mother's _murderer was still alive, I would have hunted him down far past the day my hair turned grey."

"Then the MHC did a pretty shit job of handling things." Bren said. "But I'm not talking about _just you. _I'm talking about everyone!" He exclaimed. "Because there was a chance...an actual chance that Eclipsa, Star, and Janna had, to kill me before I blew up that mansion."

Moon reared back in surprise. Her chest suddenly felt much tighter, like someone had just sucked the air out of the room. "Excuse me? What are you going about now? When did _they _have a chance to kill you?"

"Lots of time actually, but mainly after I beat the hell out of Marco." Bren said. "Nasty affair. He lured me somewhere and tried to kill me, so I gave him a punishment in the form of a fight. Which was entirely one-sided."

"I am fully aware of those events." Moon said. "But when-"

"They arrived just as I was about to finish him off." Bren explained. "Those three, all packed in Eclipsa's car. They ran into me and knocked me into a nearby tree, grabbed Marco, and drove off. And where, pray tell, was the opportunity?" He asked rhetorically. "It was right after they hit me. I can take a lot, as you can see. But being smacked by a car like that definitely took me out of the game for a few seconds. They should have kept going. Ran over me until the _car _ran out of gas. I wouldn't have been able to move. I wouldn't have been able to dodge it. Marco was already going to die, _and by the way, good for him for being resurrected like that, he must be more important than he fucking knows, _and so they should have just gone straight for me."

Moon bit her bottom lip. "How did you even find out about Marco's resurrection?"

"...Really? _That's _your first question after that?" Bren asked. "Well, if you must know, I may have had a bit of a visitor last night. You could call him my advisor of sorts. He told me the news, and I was mostly indifferent towards it."

"The god of flame I assume." Moon said, and Bren tried not to look surprised. "Yes, we know all about that. The creator of Demon Magic. Janna told Star who then told me. Soon enough all of your enemies are going to know."

"Doesn't make a difference." Bren said. "It doesn't if the entire damn town knows how I'm doing all this. Because I'm still riding on my earlier point. Even if you do get a chance to kill me, you won't take it. Because honestly...you could have done it already. I'm pinned here. And yet...even after that fight we had...when you went for the killing blow multiple times_..._you still won't do it. You _finally _got me exactly where you want me, and what do you do? Talk! Talk talk talk! And with each passing second, you're giving me more time to think of a way out of this!"

"You want to stop all the talking?" Moon asked rhetorically. "Alright then." She lowered the knife and hovered it over his mouth, a look of both irritation and anticipation in her eyes. "Then why didn't I cut out your tongue, and we cut the talking in half. How does that sound?"

"...That sounds like borderline sadism." Bren pointed out. "And also really uncharacteristic, like a ton of other stuff I've been seeing with you. Gods, what the hell is going on with everyone tod-"

But it was too late. Taking his "no more talking" request to heart, and realizing that yes, she should just end this already, Moon raised the knife in the air and prepared to drive it down his throat, the only sounds coming out of her own being a steady breathing noise that sounded like it was coming from an angry bull. She swung it towards him for the final time, and Bren was left with no chance of escape. He merely clenched his eyes just and braced for the explosion of pain soon to come…

...until a wild scream made Moon stop a centimeter from his teeth.

"STOP!" It screeched. The former Queen froze in place while Bren slowly opened one fear-laced eye, and simultaneously they looked to their left and saw Globgor sitting on the back of a warnicorn, with what looked like over four dozen knights accompanying him. Moon recognized none of them, but they appeared to be the backup knights that were put into action if the main ones were ever...unavailable.

But none of that mattered, nor where they had come from, how they knew to come here, and how Globgor had gathered them up so fast, as Moon was now nothing short of pissed that they had interrupted her in this crucial moment.

"Moon, don't kill him!" Globgor continued. "Not yet! We can't kill him just yet!"

"And why the hell not?!" Moon shouted, not caring the slightest why they were here. "Aren't we going to execute him anyway if he's captured?"

"Yes, but not like _this!" _Globgor yelled. "The town's bylaws state that he still has to have a proper trial. You can't just kill him on the street like this Moon, or otherwise you'll be a criminal too."

"Huh. Saved by the justice system." Bren chimed in, who was actually overjoyed that Globgor had arrived. "Never thought I'd be grateful for something like that…"

"Shut up." Moon and Globgor said simultaneously, before the Monster King spoke directly to Moon again.

"I get it." He said. "You want to kill him. Everyone does right now. But if you _do, _it won't do anything! We still don't know what he's planning or where exactly he's keeping Tom's parents! We need to get that information out of him, and we kinda need him _alive _for that!"

"If you think I'm telling you _anything, _even under torture, then you're out of your mind Globgor." Bren said. "I can take whatever painful methods you can think up, and it's not like you can blackmail. You've got nothing."

"Trust me, we've got plenty." Globgor said, glaring at him. "Enough to make you tell us everything we want to know ten times over."

"And that is…?" Bren asked.

"Something I'm sure you'd be interested in." Globgor said, before taking a deep breath. "Bren...we have your family."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Bullshit. They're dead dude." Bren said casually, entirely unaffected by this claim while everybody else in the area (including the knights) had been stunned into total silence by it. "They've been dead for a really long time. What the hell are you talking about?"

"No. No, they're still alive." Globgor said, who was trying to keep a straight face. "And the Council has them. You see, a few weeks ago, we came across a group of people who had made a camp in the Forest of certain death. About 20-40 people in total. They said that their dimension had been destroyed, and they had been somehow transported to this one. They had been living in that forest for _months_. So we tried to take them in, but they insisted that they-"

"Okay stop." Bren interjected. "This is beyond pathetic Globgor. An imbecile could see through this bluff. And while I am mildly impressed that you of all people tried to blackmail me by threatening my family, do you seriously think that there could be survivors from my home dimension hiding out in those woods for months without me noticing?"

"...They had hidden themselves well. In a cave on the northwest side of the woods." Globgor explained. "They had been using that Demon Magic that allowed them to cloak themselves from anyone getting close, and-"

"No, that's also total bullshit. And with that claim, you're just digging yourself deeper!" Bren contested. "That means you'd have known about Demon Magic far before you knew about me, that you shouldn't have been able to find them in the first place, _because seriously, the cloaking spells Demon Magic can summon is some serious shit, _and that still doesn't matter, because the fire-god would have told me if they were alive!"

"..."

"No more excuses, eh?" Bren said, mocking Globgor's inability to come up with another. "But you know what the real kicker is? They couldn't have been from my dimension. Even if a few people did somehow slip through, none of them could _ever _have been my _actual _family, because _I _personally fucking killed them!"

Moon (and half of the people present) gasped and almost dropped her weapon reflexively from shock. "You-you did what?!"

"Why are you acting so surprised?" Bren asked. "Seriously, compared to all the horrible shit I've done, killing everyone I was related to is kids stuff." He glanced over at Globgor. "So is there anything else you want to tell me, or should we just get this over with?"

Globgor grimaced and sighed. 'Alright.' He thought. 'I was hoping to do this the peaceful way, but now he's not going to believe anything else I have to say. No more discussion. Time to end this whole mess, guilty as it makes me feel.'

"Moon." He said. "Step way from him."

"No." The former Queen said sternly. "My position hasn't changed. I'm not going anywhere. He has to die, and even a pacifist like you must see that. Either I kill him right here, or the Council makes the decision to execute him later. He's going to die either way, why not now?!"

"Actually, you can't kill me." Bren said, and all eyes fell on him. "I'm under government protection, believe it or not."

"Oh, you mean how you're threatening them all to do whatever you want?" Globgor asked rhetorically. "We already know about that. Once they see that you're in a cell and that Tom has been saved, any bit of power you had over them is gone."

"I'm not talking about _that." _Bren said, rolling his eyes. "There's more to my deal with them than you know. And it _is _a deal. I'm not the only one getting something out of this you know."

"What do you-"

"I told them everything." Bren revealed. "About Demon Magic. About the fire God. About what Butterfly did to my dimension. And _trust me..._they were all _very_ interested." He coughed and gave the crowd a toothy grin. "You think threats are the only angle I have here? No...it's not just that. You see, I didn't trust them completely to not attack me while I was burning this town to a crisp. It is still, after all, U.S. soil. And if the rest of the nation found out...well, then we'd have a bit of a problem."

"What did you do?!" Moon demanded.

"Were you not listening? I made a deal." Bren repeated. "In exchange for them covering up all the news outlets broadcasting out of the town, chasing all the scientists off, and _guaranteeing_ that they would not interfere no matter how many people I killed…I would teach them how to use Demon Magic."

"You'd what?!" Globgor exploded, almost too shocked for words. "You-you're going to..."

"Teach them." Bren declared. "I told them "think about it. Your country will be the only one with magic. You'll have the ability to teleport soldiers, make giant balls of fire rain from the sky anywhere on Earth at any time, and be protected under literal divine power. You'll be unstoppable". Needless to say, they took up my offer pretty quick." He chucked and licked some blood off his lips. "I could practically see their eyes lighting up at the idea. They all only care about themselves and the houses they live in. And when I said that there was a way to protect that house with a barrier that no conventional weapons could get through...well, I'm sure you can guess what happened next."

"Are you insane?" Moon shrieked. "They're going to use that magic for _war! _And if it falls into the wrong hands, then the entire Earth could be destroyed! Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"Oh blah." Bren said, waving her off. "Do you really think I care? Let the Earth be destroyed. Let the humans kill themselves off. It doesn't matter to me. And it shouldn't to you. After all, if the world goes to shit, then you can just place a barrier around the town.

You live, they die, the end."

"I'd rather _nobody _die because of this." Moon growled. "And don't think our problems will be solved by putting a shield around Earthni. I've met with the leaders of the world. Both political and military. And I can say with certainty that most of them would rather blow it all hell then surrender! A magical barrier won't help us against _more _magic you idiot! Which you so conveniently gave them!"

"Yeah...I haven't forgotten." Bren mumbled. "But believe me, it will. The god of fire won't let everyone die. Even if the apocalypse becomes a thing because of all this, _he'll_ make sure that there's a sizable enough population by the end of it that'll allow you schmucks to safely repopulate the world. Like I said. The Earth May die, but _Earthni, _or at least part of it, will live on."

"Wait." Globgor said walking over despite the knights surrounding him motioning for him to stay where he was. "You _don't _want to kill us all?"

"Oh, I do." Bren reassured him. "It's just that my God won't let me. Like I told you, there needs to be someone left to repopulate." He shrugged. "Of course, this is entirely speculation. There's no guarantee that the humans will wipe themselves out with the Demon Magic. And even if they do screw it up, I'm sure they'll bounce back somehow."

"That's all very fascinating, but _why?" _Moon demanded. "Why wouldn't your god of flame want us all to die? Are we important in some way to it?"

"No. If we're going by _his _reasons, then there's nothing special about you." Bren said. "Earthni is just...more secluded, so it'd have a better chance of surviving if the Earth goes nuclear. Or magical. But either way, any group of people that's large enough will do. He's not picky."

"But...why?" Moon repeated. "Why would he want _any _of us to survive?"

"I'm afraid I can't really reveal that." Bren said. "But I will tell you this. No matter what...no matter what dimension or species it belongs to...there always needs to be someone to continue his legacy."

'That's disgustingly ambiguous...' Moon thought, before glancing over at Globgor. "Your order." She said sarcastically. "After hearing that, are you really disagreeing with me that we should-"

"Not done yet!" Bren interjected loudly. "You didn't let me finish explaining why this means you can't kill me."

"Do you really think it's going to stop me from doing so?"

"No, but I'm betting it'll make _them _stop you." Bren said, pointing over at Globgor and the knights. "Now listen. The government wants me to teach them Demon Magic. I haven't done so yet, and the documents they had me sign say that when this is all over, when Star Butterfly is dead and I have finished my whole revenge plot, I will tell them everything I know. Of course, I'm still deciding whether I should _actually _do this, considering their precious "documents" have no power on someone like me…"

"Get to the point!" Moon shouted, pushing her dagger forward and holding it against his throat.

"Ugh…fine." Bren sighed dramatically. "The _point _is that they want that magic. _Bad. _And they need _me _alive in order for them to learn it. So if I die, then everything I promised them turns into lies, thanks to you lot. So if you kill me...or capture me and execute me later...the government will come down here raising hell over it, and then Earthni will fall under an avalanche of investigations of court orders."

"Is that supposed to be threatening?" Moon asked. "If the government is really doing this, then all we have to do is expose them, and then there'll be riots all over the country once the people hear about what they've done, and what they _let _happen!"

"Yeah, but will it accomplish anything?" Bren queried. "Will those riots _actually _do anything that changes the way the system works? No. Not a single person up top will go to prison for this. They'll find a scapegoat that didn't have anything to do with this in the first place and let _them _take the blame_. _If you really think those creeps are going to let a fellow creep get thrown out of their position or whatever over something as menial this, then you have another thing coming."

"_Menial as this?!" _Globgor repeated. "That's crazy! Almost a thousand people just died! How is _that-"_

"Yes, a thousand people just died, but if you look at past crimes, then that's just child's play!" Bren shouted. "The genocides. The indiscrimination. The cover-ups. The secret operations. The assassinations. There are things far worse than murder, and trust me, they've done it all."

"When did you become an expert in government crimes?" Moon scoffed.

"I'm not." Bren said. "But I know how things work. One look at those people sitting in their offices was enough to tell that a lot of terrible things had to happen to make this all possible. I've seen it before. My dimension was riddled with it. All the power...all the greatness…all the grandeur...but underneath, it was nothing but corpses, holding up civilization and slowly decaying so that others could take their place. _That's _what a society is. That's what it will always be. And _that _is why nobody will care if you vanish off the face of the map!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Quite the speech." Globgor deadpanned. "But as someone just told me...this is entirely speculation."

"If you want to use my own words against me, you might wanna come up with something better." Bren said. "Because that's a point I still agree on. This is a personal opinion after all. And opinions have never been facts unless proven to be so. Maybe the government _will _help out and shred those documents. But until then…" He turned his head and smiled at the Monster King. "I have every reason to believe they won't."

"..."

"So yeah." Bren finished. "Kill me, and your little town will die anyways."

Moon looked from side to side and then raised the knife in the air again. "It's worth it." She said.

Globgor, seeing that there was truly no changing her mind this time, yelled out "stop her!", and instantly fifty knights surged forward towards the former Queen. The blade came down just as they reached her, and one of them grabbed her arm resulting in the tip of the knife stopping a millimeter from Bren's forehead.

"Get her away from him!" Globgor ordered, and the knights started dragging Moon away, despite her loudly vocalized protests for them to release her. The other 45 knights then surrounded Bren in a tight circle with their blades pointed at him, cutting off any means of escape he might try to take advantage of.

"I'm sorry…" Globgor said nervously, walking slowly over to Moon. "But even if the stuff he said wasn't true, this isn't the way we do things."

"You're crazy!" She said. "Did you see what he did to my daughter? To Marco? To this town? To the people around us?!" She huffed and tried to wrestle her way out of the knight's grips. "I made a perfect argument earlier. He's going to die anyway, whether or not the government will try and protect him. Why not end it now?!"

"Because if we just kill like this, then we're no better than him!" Globgor yelled. "Once he gets a trial and tells us what he knows, I'm perfectly content with throwing him into a mob of angry citizens and letting them tear him to pieces, but until then, he stays alive!"

"You're making a mistake." Moon hissed, right before she started losing her mind. "You really think he doesn't have a contingency plan for being captured like this? He seems to have one for everything! Just let me do this Globgor! Tell your knights to stand aside and I'll finish it! Heck, tell them to kill him right now! It doesn't even have to be me!"

"Moon…" Globgor sighed. "If you keep that up we might have to arrest you too."

"Arrest _me?" _Moon exclaimed. "What for? What crimes have I committed?"

"Technically, public vigilantism, by beating him up like that." Globgor said. "Although I'll make sure the court marks that down as injuries he got from his fall out the window. Same goes for River."

"Oh, don't give me any of that. Like the law even matters right now." Moon scoffed. "Besides, if what Bren said is true, then the _makers _of those laws will try and defend him! We can't win a court case against the entire government! When they hear that we've got him, they'll come down, arrest him, and we'll never see him again. Then two years later, I'm betting we'll all be dead, crossfire in a war fought with the Demon Magic that they forced him to teach them!"

"..."

"..."

"Moon, maybe that will be how things play out." Globgor said. "But what's going on right now is what's most important, so I'm just going to give the knights an order. One that I had been thinking of doing ever since we got here. We're not going to kill him, but I'm sure that it will satisfy you enough to stop thrashing around like that."

"Globgor, you are easily the most non-violent person I have ever known. I'm honestly shocked that you're here with these knights in the first place." Moon said. "What could you possibly order them to do that will satisfy me?"

"Well-" He started.

"Hey, can I get in on this?" Bren interrupted, causing them both to turn his way. Despite his extremely poor condition, he had found the strength necessary to get on his feet (foot technically) again. The knights surrounding him were ready to start pummeling him at any given moment, but didn't approach without Globgor's okay.

"You be quiet." Moon said. "The only reason you're still alive is because I'm not going to attack my allies soldiers in order to get to you."

"That's nice and all, but I have something to say." Bren revealed. "You know, earlier, I was showing you this." He held up his device. "Unfortunately, I was interrupted before I got the chance to fully explain what it was, continuing the cycle of never-ending sidetracks that seem to be the prevalent theme for today. Had to go through all that bullshit I made up about Butterfly dying."

Moon stared at him blankly.

"...Oooh, damn it, there goes that plot point." Bren mourned. "Dang. I was hoping it would last a little longer." He shrugged. "Eh. No matter. It wasn't going to turn into anything anyway…"

"Hrrr...get to the damn point!" Moon growled/repeated, silently and angrily acknowledging that she had been right in her earlier assumption.

"Fine." Bren said grumpily. He cleared his throat. "This is a trigger, like I was talking about. Specifically, it is a trigger that is linked to several bombs I have planted under...this big building right here." He gestured toward the hospital again. "Enough to annihilate it entirely along with anyone standing in a half-mile radius. _Much _bigger than the one I set off yesterday. And considering how many people are in this hospital or trying to get to it right now...well, I think it's safe to say that the death toll will probably go up to around a full _quarter_ of the town's total population."

Everyone, even the knights, started backing away as he finished saying this, as if the trigger itself was a bomb.

"Yeah, that's right." Bren said. "Back off, or it all goes boom. Because I'm going to say to you the same thing I said to Moon earlier. Did you really think I came here without a backup plan? I planted those last night after I had Tom teleport me into the hospital's basement. Specifically, the part that's blocked off because of a mold infestation. So all of you can just-"

"He's _lying." _A sudden childlike voice said. All heads turned towards the sound of the voice, where they saw little Zudo standing next to the now dismounted warnicorns, dressed in the exact same attire from the meeting and walking up to the group of knights like he was their commander.

"...What the hell?" Bren said, saying aloud what everyone except Globgor was thinking. "What are-"

"You're _lying." _Zudo repeated. "I saw you. Back at the mansion. That thing isn't a detonator at all. It's just a communicator! You used it to threaten that demon and now you're just doing it again! You-"

"Okay, where the fuck you pop out of?!" Bren interjected. "You've been missing for the past couple of hours, as far as I'm aware, and then you just appear right here, right now, in order to tell everyone I was lying?! What kind of convenient unlikely bullshit is-"

"He's actually here because of me." Globgor announced, stepping in front of the boy. "Zudo here came to the Monster Temple looking for help from Eclipsa, but then I got that phone call from you."

"Who told you that was me-"

"Who do you _think?" _Globgor asked rhetorically. "Zudo. He said that he had been listening in on the whole conversation using the phone in the other room, and he was able to tell it was you faking being Buff Frog only a few minutes in. When he got the chance, he came running to me, I believed him, and then we headed down to the hospital with a fleet of knights."

"You little…" Bren seethed, glaring at Zudo with such intensity that the boy actually stepped back a bit. "Okay, but how did you know I was at the hospital?!"

"You left whatever phone you were using on." Zudo revealed. "We heard the whole thing, and Globgor recognized the voice of the desk Attendant from when he visited once. Then he called the rest of the Royals, they gave him a surplus of all the knights they could provide, and we came riding down here as fast as we could."

"Why did _you_ come?" Moon asked.

"In case he tried to pull something like that." Globgor said. "More bomb threats. Zudo told me that he got so used to how Bren spoke back at the mansion that he could tell if he was lying or not if he tried anything like this."

"First off, that's stupid and terrible convenient." Bren complained. "Second off, no. And third off, in what universe could a _child _get so used to how I speak that after what, a few minutes of me talking is enough to turn them into a living lie detector?! Well excuse me, but if Zudo manages to do that, then you jackasses should as well! Remember the meeting I crashed? That was a lot of talking! It's just like in the lobby! None of this makes any damn sense! Is everyone in this town besides me just fucked in the head or what?!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"No. Just you." Moon said casually. She looked over at Globgor, who was busy whispering something to Zudo. "Globgor. Is there anything _else _that needs revealing, or can we finally get this over with?"

"Yes, actually, there is something else that needs to be taken care of." River said noisily, who had been busy laying on his back watching this all unfold. "Could one of you please help me get up? I don't think I can."

Once everyone took this in and realized that they had completely forgotten or had just not noticed River for the past few minutes, Moon finally wrestled her way out of the knight's grip and freed herself. Globgor was about to yell out for somebody to stop her, but instead of going for Bren like he expected, she ran over to her husband and kneeled at his side.

"River!" She said in anguish, horrified with herself that she had been so obsessed with killing Bren that her heavily injured husband had totally slipped her mind. "I-I'm so sorry! I can't believe I left you here! I-"

"It's okay." River said weakly, looking not at all irked. "I'm a Johansen Moon-pie. We can take anything! I'll just have a few bruises in the morning. Nothing I can't-" He tried to get up for the fifth time but fell back down. "...walk off."

"River, we're taking you inside and getting some medical attention." Moon announced, before turning away in shame. "This is all my fault. I abandoned you for selfish reasons."

"Your fault?!" River bellowed. "Moon, it was me who recklessly jumped out that window! I got myself injured here. None of it was your fault."

"But what came _after _is!" Moon claimed, while everybody nearby wondered if they should intervene or just let the two of them have a moment. "I should have just helped you instead of chasing after Bren. Even if you had told me to finish it, I shouldn't have left you lying here. You could have been dying and I would have been-"

"Avenging me?" River said slyly. "If I really had been dying, killing him would still take precedence. Imagine if that lie he told about the hospital blowing up was true! One death is less important than thousands right now, even mine. I already saw the horror these people had to live through on our walk here this morning. They don't deserve to live through it again. No one does, except for maybe him."

"But-"

"No buts!" River interjected. "You did the right thing, taking him down. That should be the end of this conversation Moon-pie. Don't worry about me. In fact, once they take _him _into custody, go check up in Star instead. I'm sure she's aching to know what's going on right now, stuck up there in that bothersome bed."

Moon paused and then nodded, wiping a few tears out of her eyes. All the guilt from just leaving her husband there on the ground while going off to murder Bren was hitting her with all the suddenness and speed of a bullet train, and she struggled to contain her anger so she didn't slap herself and everyone around her for not remembering/noticing that he was there earlier.

Just another action done today that had made very little sense, but in the end, wasn't important in the long run.

Which is not what could be said of the _next _action.

"Moon." Globgor chimed in, walking over to her. "I know you're having a moment with River, but I think it's time to finish this."

"Fine. Take him into custody." Moon scoffed, still too focused on River to care while also being well aware that she now had no chance of reaching Bren. "I won't try and stop you."

"No, but I think you're gonna wanna watch what's coming next." Globgor said. "Earlier I told you that I'd give an order to the knights that would be satisfying, and you didn't believe me."

"You also said that you had been thinking of doing it ever since you arrived." Moon recalled. "What do you want me to watch? One of your knights punching him in the face to knock him out?"

"No. Because I want to make sure he physically _can't' _escape before the execution, and I don't mean just putting him in a locked cell."

Moon stared at him in confusion. "What _do_ you mean then?"

"What I mean is that I think most people have forgotten that I was once one of the worst and most feared Monster Kings in Mewni's history, at least since the Merge." Globgor said. "And although I promise to myself every day that I can't let that side of myself come out again…." He grit his teeth and briefly closed his eyes. "Bren threatened to kill my daughter, and my wife, and me. And he's actually going to accomplish that if something isn't done right here, right now."

Globgor then stepped forward towards the crowd of knights, who looked up, eagerly awaiting his command. He glanced back at Moon one last time, a look in his eyes that she could swear mirrored all the tapestries and murals of him terrorizing Mewmanity hundreds of years ago. He sighed and then turned back to his subordinates.

"All of you!" He declared. "B-beat…" Globgor hesitated, before clenching his fists and forcing the next few words out. "...Beat Bren until he can no longer move, and then take him into custody." He paused. "That's all. Get to it."

All the knights nodded and then looked back at Bren, cracking their knuckles as they amped themselves up to basically torture the same person that had killed their friends and family. Bren tried to back away, but somebody behind him pushed him to the ground. He let out one last expletive under his breath as he saw what was about to happen, and once again lacking any kind of method to stop it.

Then a second later, an avalanche of fists of feet started pounding every inch of his body, not a single one of them holding.

Moon actually gasped at the sheer brutality she was witnessing, ordered by _Globgor _of all people. The knights were hitting him for all they were worth. Each punch caused them to pull their hand back and shake it to get rid of the pain, but they were back at it a second later, Bren's rock-hard skin nothing more than a nuisance. He didn't even make a sound as they beat on him, if only because his throat currently had several metal boots being slammed into at once. The knights worked without speaking, without cheering, without saying a single word. Their only job now was to as Globgor commanded, and all of them appreciated the chance to finally let loose.

"Oh my god…" Moon exclaimed. "They're actually going to kill him Globgor. If you want someone taken alive, then you can't do it like this!" She said in a matter-of-factly tone. "First off, you have to-"

"He'll live." Globgor said confidently. "Trust me when I say that. After this is done and the knights get it out of their system, I have someone who can heal him. She actually showed up at the Monster Temple right after Zudo did, thinking that Marco might be there. But...after I explained the situation and what we were about to do, she wanted to help out."

"...Let me guess." Moon said. "Ms. Ordania?"

"Yup." Globgor confirmed. "She has left the meeting with the other Royals after they had finished their plan of how to get back Tom's parents from the Underworld, which is actually what Bren's device does. It sends a signal down there to whoever's working for him to kill the two of them, which is why Tom followed his orders. If he didn't, then his parents would die."

"Why didn't he just steal the device?" Moon asked. "Or try to burn it?"

"You know, I'm not entirely sure…" Globgor mumbled, before trailing off. "By the way, where is Tom now?"

"He's over near the entrance." Moon said, pointing a thumb in its direction. "I knocked him out so he couldn't interfere, but he already looked like he was in pretty bad shape. I think you should go get Ms. Ordania and have her heal him." Her gaze switched over to Bren's device, which was lying vacant on the ground broken in two, having been stepped on by one of the knights. "After which we can inform him that he is now free."

"He is? That's a relief." A voice said, and the two of them glanced to their right to see Janna, hobbling on her crutches and looking extremely pleased with herself. "Although it's going to take a lot of preparation to actually start the healing process…"

"I told you to stay back at the Temple." Globgor sighed, not even the smallest bit surprised to see her. "You could have gotten hurt coming here. If Bren saw you and we hadn't already…" He hesitated and searched for the right word. "...apprehended him, then he'd probably go straight for you."

"Yeah, but with a hundred knights, I think I could take my chances." Janna said. She turned her head toward the knight crowd, who were still having a blast beating on their now barely-living punching bag. "Well, that's just horrible." She deadpanned. "Also pretty harsh Globgor. At least for you. How hard was it to give that order?"

"Harder than anything I've said in almost 300 years, but it was necessary." The Monster King replied. "We don't want to give him any chances to escape by himself. And if breaking all his arms and legs is what's required, then so be it."

"Yeah...but I think we all know the real reason." Janna said. "Heck, I'm surprised you're not over there helping in the "arrest". Considering everything he's done…"

"Trust me, it's tempting." Globgor admitted. "And that's not even counting the things he's done that we _don't _know about. Once this is all over, I'm going to go find Buff Frog. I think something is going on between him and Bren. Maybe an alliance like the one he had with Tom.

"Buff Frog?" Moon chimed in, sounding rather surprised. "Do you seriously believe he's working with him too? Not willingly of course, but...like how he got Tom under his control?"

"I mean, it would be pretty easy to rein someone like him in." Janna said. "Just kidnap his kids or something and boom, he'll do whatever Bren says. But forgive me for asking, but why do you think something's going on with Buff Frog anyways?"

"I'll explain later. There's a lot to unpack. But rest assured, I don't think he's dangerous. We'll go investigate him after this. But if he's not working for Bren, then nothing changes. But if he is, me and the rest of the Council will do our best to clear him of all charges." Globgor said, making Moon and Jannanid in approval. "But since you're _here, _popping up out of nowhere like you always do…"

"It's a habit."

Globgor grinned. "That's putting it lightly. But anyways, now that you're here, let's go get Tom so you can-"

"Hey!"

"What the hell is he doing?!"

"Back up! Back up!"

"Why is his blood blue?"

"Oh god, what now?!" Moon shouted, as the three of them turned toward the source of the voices. This was revealed to be several of the knights, who as a whole were backing away from Bren as if they were terrified of him. Janna tried to move forward but Globgor held her back, and Moon stepped in front of both of them, intent on handling whatever Bren was about to throw at them _this _time with her bare hands.

'Why couldn't I have just stayed home today?' She thought, asking herself the same question that everyone else was. She pushed her way past the knights and toward the center of the group, reaching it in no time. Moon let out a reflexive "eugh" at the mere sight of Bren, which was brutal enough to give the most hardened people nightmares.

He was, to be frank, nothing short of mutilated. Every part of his body was covered in giant bruises, his face so beaten that he was almost unrecognizable. His clothes were half torn and several giant scraps were lying on the ground, exposing his arms and legs, all of which were twisted and bent the wrong ways with pieces of snapped bone poking through. And the odd blue blood he had was just spread everywhere, like someone had taken a few gallons of paint and just poured it on him. Moon hoped that Janna must be able to perform a pretty powerful healing spell, because otherwise he'd be dead the second anyone tried to move him.

"What's the problem now?" Moon asked, gesturing at Bren. "Do you need help moving him or do you just not want anymore blood on-"

A hand grabbed her wrist, and a collective gasp of horror came from the knights, along with a "I don't get paid enough for this shit," from the back. Moon froze and glanced down at her wrist like she was moving in slow motion, where she saw five mangled, twisted fingers latching on to her, attached to the shattered arm of Bren, who was now kneeling on one leg and grinning at her with with half a set of teeth.

Janna huffed in confusion. "Dude, what the hell is-"

"DIE!" Bren screamed, and a second later he twisted Moon's wrist and then grabbed her elbow with his other hand. She responded by kicking him in the face, causing him to recoup in pain and let go of her. Without a moment to waste, Moon grabbed the back of his head and then slammed the front of it into the pavement, splitting it open and creating a small dent in the asphalt.

The knights were shocked.

Globgor was shocked.

Even Janna wore an expression of mild surprise.

And River...has fallen asleep a minute or so earlier.

But Bren seemed to be dazed for a moment as he took in the silence. He then pushed himself up and then stood on his broken legs as if they were completely fine, much to everyone's horror. He swiveled his head around until his eyes met Globgor, both of them now a brilliant green in color.

"Globgor." He hissed, using a tone that the Monster King had never heard before. It wasn't anticipation. It wasn't sadism. It wasn't even amusement.

He was..._happy? _That was a voice filled with pure joy, like a little kid who had just found a lost balloon.

"I suppose I should thank you." He continued, while all the knights wondered if they should keep beating on him or not. "They never let me out to play, you see. Thanks to Brudo and Star, the cracks showed every now and then...but they always kept me restrained."

"W-what are you talking about?" Globgor asked, wondering if he was in a dream or not

"Oh, I'm just _thanking _you!" "Bren" exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air which responded with a squelching noise. "For finally setting me free! I mean, I guess it was technically Moon finalizing it with that head slam, but still, you _gave the initial order." _He then giggled, making everyone take another step back. _This _was not normal. _This _was creepy, even for Janna, and stuff like that was supposed to be her department.

And the way he was smiling just made them all want to turn around and run until they were in another country.

"What do you mean by set you free?" Janna asked, sounding intrigued. She moved towards Bren despite Globgor's attempt to her to stay back, but just like Moon had done earlier, she ignored him and stopped once she was a few feet away, almost within grabbing distance.

"Oh, a little close there, aren't we?" "Bren" said. "A risky move, all things considered...

"Maybe, but if you really wanted to kill me this early on, then you would have broken into my house this morning and done it while I was still asleep." Janna pointed out. "Killing comes easy to you, so if you _really _wanted to murder any of us yet, you'd have done it already."

"You make a point. But it's your funeral, and the Bren that wanted to keep you alive…" He chuckled. "...Isn't here right now."

"And what does _that _mean?" Moon interjected, getting to her feet, rubbing her head, and using every ounce of willpower she had to not simply rip all his arms and legs off. "Are you done with this whole charade, or are we going to have to force you-" Her gaze darted to his face and noticed his discolored eyes, and she stopped mid-syllable, staring at them like she had just been frozen under Medusa's gaze.

"Hm. Cat got your tongue Moon?" "Bren" hummed. "Let me guess. You finally noticed. Well, I'm glad. Took you long enough."

"Notice what?" Globgor asked, walking up behind Janna and Moon. He followed their gazes and took note of Bren's eye color as well, before letting out a groan and facepalming. "Okay. Could someone please explain to me what's going on now?"

Bren took a wobbly step towards them. "What's going _on _is-"

"Be quiet." Globgor said, placing his palm on Bren's split forehead and then pushing him to the ground. He landed in a heap, his right wrist suddenly bending in three different ways, which he somehow didn't react to in the slightest. "Janna, do you have any idea-"

"Don't speak, and let me do the talking." Janna said bluntly, ordered really. "And I get that that sounds rude, but I know what's going on with his eyes and what it means, and if you don't ever want the old version of Bren to come back, then you'll stay quiet and let me do my thing."

"Wait-"

"Oh...and tell all your knights to move back. Or just leave entirely." She requested. "It'll be easier the fewer people we have here."

"Now hold on just a moment!" Moon said. "Janna, first off, we can't _not-"_

"No...let her take over." Globgor said, stepping between the two of them.

"Globgor?!" Moon exclaimed, with equal parts of shock and anger, infuriated that the Monster King was allowing Janna to go anywhere near Bren. She stepped in close and whispered to him, but it was still so loud that everyone could hear it.

"Globgor, we can't let her go talk to Bren! He'll try to kill her! Frankly, it's a miracle he hasn't already!" She hissed, gesturing toward the pair who were only a few feet apart. "Bren's down. Look at the condition he's in. We should take him in before Tom wakes up and thinks that he still has to-"

"_Moon." _Globgor said sternly, grabbing both of her hands which had been moving every which way during her whisper-fest. "Calm. Down. Ever since I got here, you have been angry and hissing and throwing a fit. It's not like to do that for this long a time, or at all really, and I'm not fond of seeing you like that. So for the first time today...and that moment with River a second ago doesn't count...could you please chill out?"

"Chill...out?"

"A phrase I taught him." Janna interjected. "Basically, he's telling you to settle down."

"Exactly." Globgor said. "Bren's not going anywhere. It's over. There's no _real _need for you to-"

"Maybe we should discuss this later, after we figure out how Bren is standing in two broken legs, why his eyes are now a different color, and figure out what he's talking about?!" Moon suggested. "It's quite plainly _not _over."

"..."

"..."

"Okay, I'm just going to play my part so we can get this over with." Janna said, turning her focus back towards "Bren". "Alright. Bren...or whatever your real name is. I get you're probably confused. You might not know what's going on here."

"I know full well." "Bren" said. "I may not be allowed out, but I saw and heard it all. It was the one gift I was granted."

"I see…" Janna said. "But whatever those two did to you...whatever happened that caused you to be trapped...it's over now. You don't have to be "Bren" ever again. There's no more god of fire controlling you, at least for now. All we have to do is bring that demon book here, and I think there's a spell in it that can get rid of his influence in you forever, okay?"

"Bren" paused and stared at the ground, seemingly contemplating where he should agree to this. Everyone else looked on in bewilderment, simultaneously wondering what the hell was happening and why Bren wasn't trying to kill them.

"I'm not sure I like this plan." "Bren" said. "You might have to tell the others why they shouldn't tear my head off first. Before we get to all the magic."

"I agree, but right now I think we should do the magic first. Namely...healing you." Janna mumbled, trying not to stare at the numerous fatal injuries he had sustained. "If you get too distracted by the pain, then it might give _him _an opportunity to grab hold of the reins again."

"Not a concern." "Bren" said. "I haven't felt pain for a long time. It was during my...change that I started feeling it though. Bren feels it because the _god of fire…" _He spat the words out. "...felt that it was necessary. But rest assured, if he does come back, it will not be because of the pain."

"Is that how you're walking around like that?" Janna asked. "With the broken legs and everything?"

"That's not how broken legs work." "Bren" said. "Or at least I don't think that's how they work." He shook his head, his neck making several cracking noises as he did so. "But anyways, I do thank you for not attacking me, and apologize for making that comment about how greeting close to me was your funeral. I was worried that you wouldn't know what was happening. Finally let up for air, and what's the first thing I'm greeted with?" He giggled again. "A fist straight to the face. And then...ten more."

"Sorry about that, but as I'm sure you know, your possessed self was kind of a dick." Janna explained. "He kinda screwed everything up."

"And _I _am sorry about that." "Bren" apologized. "I never meant for any of this to happen. Back then...I wanted revenge, yes...but not like this. Her. I just wanted her. I wouldn't dream of hurting anyone else. But when he took her...things got out of hand."

"Yeah, I think that's obvious." Janna said. "Do you...ah, still want to kill Star? Because if so, then that's a problem."

"No. No longer." "Bren" claimed. "I won't try to hurt a hair on her head. It's the least I could do after what I've done to your dimension. After all the pain I inflicted on her...and on her friends...I'd say I had my "revenge" ten times over…"

"Well, that's good." Janna said, although she clearly hadn't been expecting him to say that. "Then just stay here, and I'll go get the book." She paused. "After I explain everything to Moon and Globgor of course. Do you think you can...keep yourself alive for that long?"

"Yes." "Bren" said. "The god of fire won't let me die like this. Not until I complete my mission. Which, of course, I now have no interest in fulfilling. But still...I'll be fine."

"Got it." Janna said, before clearing her throat and addressing everyone. "Nobody hurt him, he's not evil anymore, and I'll explain everything later."

A discontented murmur spread throughout the crowd, all of them pondering if they should trust Janna's word or keep beating on Bren. Janna herself moved back over to Globgor and Moon, who were staring at her like she was crazy/some kind of psychological genius, of which there is hardly a difference.

"What was that?" Moon asked, keeping her voice down. "Why is he acting so docile?"

"Remember how Marco was possessed by the fire-god?" Janna said, causing Moon and Globgor to exchange glances. "This is the same situation. Only in Bren's case it was months or even years." She took a quick look at him and then turned back. "Don't you get it? There is no "Bren". It's just been his possessed self the whole time. The _real_ Bren is right there, and that's not even his name. Just some nickname I'm betting the god of fire gave him."

"...Are you serious?" Globgor asked, his eyes bugging out. "This entire time...he's just been...possessed?"

"Yup." Janna said. "Possessed. And while the "real" Bren did say he wanted to kill Star, we don't have to worry about that revenge nonsense anymore. Because as you heard, he's...not evil anymore."

"But if what you're saying is true...and what _he's _saying is true…" Globgor mumbled. "...Then all this time he's practically been a victim, just like the rest of us."

"No. He's definitely not, considering that the "real" Bren still wanted to kill my daughter and _let_ himself get possessed in order to do it." Moon disagreed. "It doesn't matter if he's reformed now. Bren, or whatever his name is, is still responsible for all the death and destruction he wrought on Earthni. He still has to be punished, victim or not."

"Whatever punishment you have for me….I'll accept it." "Bren" interjected, who had been listening in to the whole conversation. "And I get you're probably still going to execute me. But if that's the only way I can repay you for everything I've done...then I'll consent to this."

"We're not going to execute you. Not anymore, if this is all true." Globgor said, earning a death glare from Moon. He glared back and spoke while staring right at her. "We're _not _Moon_. _I'll make sure of it. And I won't let the citizens take you by force and organize some kind of kangaroo court either."

"I'm sure they'd kill me before I even got to the courtroom." "Bren" said. "But thank you. And thank you for...trusting me like this. Like I told Janna, I was afraid no one would believe me if I got free. I'm glad…" He lowered his head. "...things didn't turn out that way."

"Well, without Janna, we wouldn't have." Globgor said. "So I guess that means…"

"I saved the day again." Janna beamed. "Just like with the demon attack. Man, I really have to start showing up to events like these out of nowhere more often. It seems I'm needed everywhere I look!" She shrugged. "But I'm going to go get that book now. Bring it back here. It's safer than trying to move Bren through town and risk some of the townsfolk attacking him."

"It won't be hard to hold them off." Globgor said. "We can surround him with all the knights to the point where they won't even be able to see him."

"Yeah, but there's still Ponyhead, and you know how nosy she is." Janna said. "If she sees hundreds of knights parading around town in one big group, then I'm betting she'll swoop down and start live-streaming it. Then every single person in Earthni will know Bren's location, and converge on it."

"That _would _be an issue...if anyone actually watched that show." Moon said. "As far as my knowledge goes, along with some rather...notable comments I've heard during our meetings, her show is not particularly popular anymore."

"Even so, something like that would go viral in a few minutes, tops." Janna said, sighing. "Okay. Just keep an eye on him. And don't…" She looked at Moon. "Don't hurt him. I know it must be surprising to hear that considering what he's done to me and how aloof I usually am about stuff like this, but I want this disaster to end just as much as you do. So…" She shrugged. "...Stay here. I'll be back in ten minutes or so. Gonna have to use that shortcut I've never told anyone about though…"

With that, Janna walked off in a random direction, towards the other end of the hospital parking lot, and disappeared into the trees that were planted there. After she was gone, "Bren" laughed, causing all eyes to fall on him.

"How ironic." He commented. "The person who I caused to be put in the hospital and now has to walk around on crutches for months on end is the same one who trusts me the most."

"I think it's more the fact that she knows you're not...you anymore." Globgor said, motions for the knights to give him some room. "But could you give us a better, longer explanation as to what's going on? What happened that caused you to get possessed like that?"

"It's a sordid story…" "Bren" claimed. "Let's just say for now that I had my reasons for wanting to kill Star. Any person with a sense of revenge would have wanted to as well."

"Then _what_ happened?" Moon demanded, ready to attack him the second he started showing signs of being hostile again. She didn't trust Janna's word even the slightest bit, even if it seemed she was telling the truth. "What did my daughter do? What happened to your dimension?"

"Ah ah ah." "Bren" said. "Technically, it wasn't just your daughter. You participated as well Moon. After all, I do believe my other side mentioned at one point that I wanted to kill all the Butterfly's. Your family exterminated magic, which caused the tragedy. Nothing is without consequences, especially an action that big."

"Now you're talking like him again." Moon seethed. "What happened to all that giggling from earlier?"

"Oh, I was just happy I finally got a hold of the reins." "Bren" said. "Nothing else. And I can assure you that they will stay in my hands for as long as I live. I'm _never _letting him get out again. You don't have to worry about Bren anymore. He's not coming back."

"Then what do you want us to call you?" Globgor asked. "Janna mentioned that Bren wasn't your real name, and you just confirmed it. So...what is your real name."

"Bren's" gaze grew solemn and he stared at the ground. "I can't remember." He said. "I'll be honest with you. While I'm fully aware of my "mission" and the experiences my other side went through, most of my memories from before are...foggy. Hazy. I only have snippets of them. A few conversations, an event or two...but most of who I was _before _my eyes turned orange…" He sighed. "...is lost."

"Permanently?"

"Not sure." "Bren" said. "I hope not. The things I could tell you about my dimension is truly stunning. All the culture and art that no longer is...it's exquisite."

"I, um…" Globgor started, unable to believe that he was starting to feel sorry for him. "I'm sorry that you had to go through all that. Losing your whole dimension, your family and your friends...I can't imagine having to go through all that."

"You sorta can." "Bren" said. "You woke up after a three hundred year nap. Besides Eclipsa and your daughter, everyone you knew is gone. I think you can understand part of what I went through."

Globgor shifted in place. "Well...I hope you're…"

"Okay?" "Bren" guessed. "It's fine if you don't know what to say. I probably wouldn't either. It's natural. A person goes through an experience like that, what else can you say besides "I'm sorry for your loss"? And I know you don't want to console me anyway. I don't expect anyone to completely trust me for a while...or ever."

"Yeah…" Globgor muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "But I have to ask. Earlier your...alter-ego claimed that you killed your whole family. Is this…" He hesitated and gulped. "...Is this true?"

"Yes." Bren said casually, much to the surprise of everyone present. "It's a deed that I will remember for the rest of my days. While they slept, I cut all their throats. I did it entirely without emotion, without pause. It was...unfortunate, to say the least. I regret it greatly."

"Good god…" Moon exclaimed. "This isn't like Marco at all, based on what you've told us. I thought the possessed could somehow fight back, like how Star claimed Marco did that so he didn't kill her, but he had _total_ power over you. And to use that control to force you to perform such acts...it's horrific."

"Wow. Even _you're_ starting to feel sorry for me." "Bren" said. "But he had better control because he had gotten to me earlier. With Marco, he tortured him in a dream and left his mind vulnerable and easy to invade. In my situation, it was systematic manipulation and bargaining for months on end before he finally got in." He sighed. "But...you're wrong about one thing. When I killed my family...that was _before_ my possession, not after. Heck, it was before _he _even contacted me."

After these words left his mouth, a swift silence spread over the area, like someone had pressed a mute button for the entire town. The only sounds now were the light breathing of a few of the knights, the ones who hadn't been fully trained to show no reaction in situations like this.

"Y-you killed them without his encouragement?" Moon fumed, who was now a mix between furious and fearful. "Are you-"

"It's such a shame." "Bren" said. "Isn't it Moon? You had a lot of potential. You were a great queen. And then you threw it all away." He smiled. "Personally, I think things would have been better if you had stayed queen and ignored the fact that you were fake Royals. Would have made your life a whole lot easier. There probably wouldn't have even been a merge, and therefore...my alter-ego wouldn't have come after you."

"W-what are you getting at?" Moon asked.

"Who knows…" "Bren" said. "Just the rambling of a madman. Because that's exactly what I am." He lifted his head and giggled. "I had planned to tell you all this _after _Janna healed me, but I can't keep it going for any longer. I can't resist."

"Bren" stood up and wobbled on his legs, before outstretching a single hand to Moon and Globgor.

"There was always one thing I detested about you people." "Bren" said. "Just how _trusting _you are. Mina trusted me. Brudo trusted me for a while. Both of these things led to their downfall. Globgor believed that I was actually Buff Frog on the phone for a bit, despite it plainly _not _being him. And then there was the whole thing with Janna just now. You trusted her words like it was law. You didn't attack me once she had left, despite every instinct telling you too. Granted, none of this is her fault, she couldn't have known, as I am a _very _good liar...but still. What's about to happen is on her for not picking it up."

"Picking what up?" Globgor asked, silently motioning for the knights to ready their weapons.

"That between Bren and me…" "Bren" started, his eyes going wide as he bent what was left of his knees. "I'm the _worst _of the two."

"Oh godam-" Moon started, but by then, it was already too late. "Bren" jumped in the air and literally flipped over her like a crazed chimpanzee, a smile of pure insanity plaster on his face. The second he hit the pavement on the other side he started sprinting, all the knights behind Moon and thus him. The former Queen didn't hesitate as she literally expletives/orders screamed at the knights to start chasing him, which they all did simultaneously like an out of control mob.

It was chaos.

"Bren" was getting away.

Globgor was looking for Zudo in the crowd, who had disappeared again after he had stopped being important.

Moon was swearing incoherently, furious at herself and everyone else for letting him escape like that.

River was trying to figure out what was going on, the ruckus having woken him up.

And Janna was standing by the trees, returned from her walk with the demon book in her hand, watching the whole thing like she was witnessing the end of the world.

"CATCH HIM!" Moon shrieked, running at full speed and moving ahead of them all. She could see "Bren"

turn the corner that led to the hospital entrance...and to Tom.

"No." She whispered. "No! You're not getting away! Not like that! Not after all of this!"

Easier said than done however, because as Moon turned the corner, she saw her worst fears realized. Tom was awake, "Bren" was practically running on all fours towards him, and the former Queen knew that she did never make it to him in time at the pace she was going. Tom's eyes widened at the sight of his mutilated master, but "Bren" didn't waste any time and started barking orders at him.

"LUCITOR!" He screeched. "EMERGENCY JUMP! SAY THE WORDS AND GET READY TO TAKE US OUT OF HERE!"

Tom froze up for a second but then nodded, and for some reason he closed his eyes and started mumbling something. Moon was briefly confused by this act but then went over what Bren had just said. _Emergency jump_.

This was it. He was escaping and they couldn't-

'No.' Moon thought. 'There is...he doesn't...he doesn't have the device to use as leverage against Tom anymore!'

"THOMAS!" She yelled. "BREN DOESN'T HAVE THE-"

Too late. As the word "Thomas" left her mouth, "Bren" reached him and grabbed his shoulder, and the demon finished his incantation. Moon screamed "NO" at them one final time as a column of flame appeared out of thin air, consumed the two, and then vanished along with them.

And all that was left was the smoke from the flames, which rose into the air and soon dissipated just like they had.

Moon panted as she slowed down, standing in the spot where they teleported away, as several of the knights angrily threw their weapons to the ground and started cursing. And over all of this, the sounds of the hospital could still be heard, almost never-ending.

She fell to her knees and pounded her fists against the ground, crying tears of anger.

"Damn you…" She cursed. "Damn you…"

And then she slammed her fist into the wall with everything she had. It hurt, and bruised her knuckles a reddish-black, but it was all she could do to prevent herself from taking it out on someone else.

"So...what just happened?" Janna asked.

Globgor, who was still standing around the corner keeping an eye out for Zudo, didn't reply at first. Instead, he took a deep breath and sat down, rubbing his face and looking very much like he wanted to go to sleep.

"Nothing good." He finally said. "Bren betrayed us. After you left...he started talking to us. But it eventually led to the point where he started criticizing Moon's leadership, and then he said…" Globgor huffed as the words echoed in his mind. "..."that between Bren and me...I'm the worst of the two". Then he jumped right over Moon and ran away. I don't know if she's still giving chase or not, because I've been looking for Zudo. We can't let him vanish again, now that his whole family might be in danger."

"I...jeez." Janna mumbled shamefully. "I'm sorry, I didn't know he would-"

"It's not your fault. You just didn't pick up on his lies." Globgor said. "Even "Bren" said that he was surprised you didn't notice it. He tricked all of us. Not just you."

Janna sucked her breath in and then nodded. "Okay." She whispered. "I just can't believe...he was actually-"

"..."

"..."

"Actually what?" Globgor asked, confused as to why she had stopped so abruptly.

But Janna wasn't listening. Instead, she was focused on the ground, or at least what appeared to be a small object on the ground. She moved forward a few spaces and bent down to pick the object up, before holding it high in the air, right in front of the sun like it was a precious jewel.

"I...is that a _finger?" _Globgor asked in disgust. "Why is that-"

"It's Bren's." Janna replied. "I noticed he was missing a finger earlier, but I didn't think it'd be intact." She smirked. "I guess this whole mess...wasn't a waste after all."

"Why? What could that do for us?"

Janna chuckled. "This?" She hummed, staring at it, almost in admiration.

"This is our game-changer."

**End chapter 22**

**A/N: Yeesh, what a slog of a chapter. Sorry that this one took so long, probably should have cut this chapter in half, but it's finally finished either way. So we got a few things. Everyone's (least) favorite desk Attendant is dead, every conversation held was sidetracked and unfinished, Bren is not very good at doing voice impersonations, River is injured, "Bren" is severely injured, and now Janna has a magic ginger. That's gonna give Moon a bit of Deja-vu...and probably everyone else that interacted with Toffee.**

**Until next time.**


	24. Chapter 23: A Short-lived Reign

**Aflame**

**Chapter 23**

**A Short-lived Reign**

"What do you mean he has _green _eyes now?"

"I mean he has green eyes! And he may still be heavily injured! I'm calling you so I can tell you to keep an eye out for him. We don't know what his next move is, and we have all reason to assume that his plan to kill us all has likely changed. Bren is vulnerable right now, but he's also unpredictable. Do you understand that?"

"..."

"..."

"Hello? Are you-"

"I'm sorry...could you repeat all that? I'm still confused about all this."

Eclipsa groaned, flopped herself down in a chair, and prepared herself to explain the situation again, going on nothing but the notes that had been given to her.

It was bad.

Because as per usual, everything was going horribly. A lot had happened in the twelve hours since the meeting ended and she had fallen asleep. And "a lot" really meant "everything". Because so much had occurred while she was in dreamland, to the point where she almost couldn't believe it.

She had woken up a few hours into her nap, courtesy of Meteora slapping her face because of her insatiable baby hunger. Eclipsa almost fell down a few flights of stairs on her way to the kitchen, and she was glad that she had sent all the guards home earlier, because otherwise they would be put off by her zombie-esque appearance. Meteora followed her at the same time, crawling on the walls and hissing at people like a demonic spider, and the two of them made it to the kitchen after around thirty minutes, due to Eclipsa's pace of around 1 MPH.

Once there, however, they found a rather distressing scene. A small note was on the main table, with some odd blue liquid surrounding it that smelled like blood. Eclipsa hesitantly took the note while Meteora licked the blood before gagging several times, and then crawling over to the sink as fast as possible. The Queen ignored this dramatic display and gave the note a quick once over, which read as follows:

_Hello Eclipsa._

_I'm new in town._

_My former name was Bren. But I'm not doing that anymore. I want to tell you-_

That was as far as she got before Eclipsa scoffed and placed the note on the counter, deciding that it could be taken care of later. Maybe the note really _had _been from Bren, and it wasn't just some prank. But with Tom, she already knew that he could come and go wherever he wanted as he pleased, and all this note proved to her was that he had the opportunity to kill her and he didn't. As for the blue liquid...that could be identified later. But either way, the Queen was too tired to care at the moment, and would have probably fallen asleep again, right there on the floor, if Meteora had been babbling at her the whole time.

She then slipped the note into her pocket and went to go get the cans of baby food, Meteora still busy drowning herself under the flow of water. However, just as she was about to open the cabinet, her worst fears struck. The main door to the Temple opened, and Globgor arrived carrying more bad news.

"Eclipsa?" A sudden voice called out, which she instantly recognized as her husband's. "Where are you? I need to speak with you! Something happened...and I think you should know about it."

'Oh no.' She thought. 'Please don't tell me something else blew up. I can't go through that again. The next time someone asks me to pull an all-nighter to help with the town's problems, I'll-"

"Ah, there you are," Globgor said in relief, appearing behind her and looking slightly out of breath. He was about to speak again when he saw Meteora underneath the faucet, seemingly waterboarding herself.

"Uh...what is she doing?" He asked in concern. "I know she can get thirsty at times, but jeez, she is _really-"_

"She lapped up some of _that," _Eclipsa replied, turning around and pointing to the small blue puddle on the kitchen table, which Globgor looked at like it had leaked out of a nuclear reactor. "I don't know exactly what it is, and I'm too tired to try and identify it. But I did find _this _in the middle of it."

She then took the note out of her pocket and handed it over to Globgor, who began reading it while also staring at the puddle nervously.

"Hello, Eclipsa." He said. "I'm new in town. My former name is…" Globgor gasped and then read the rest at lighting speed, his expression growing more and more aggravated as he went on. Eventually, Globgor slowly placed the note on the counter and his eyes darted back over to the blue liquid. Without saying a word, he grabbed hold of a nearby paper towel and started wiping it up, being careful not to touch any of it as he did so.

"So what did he want?" Eclipsa asked, obviously still too tired to function properly. "I didn't read the whole thing. I don't think my brain has fully woken up yet."

After first, Globgor didn't directly respond, only mumbling things like "_oh my god, he was in our house," _and "_is it poisonous? Am I going to have to take her to the hospital?," _and other things that were too quiet for Eclipsa to hear. Eventually, he fell quiet and finished cleaning the table. He threw the paper towels in the trash, holding them as far away from him as he could, and then turned back to Eclipsa.

"Was this here when you woke up?" He asked, his voice deadly serious. If anything, this jolted Eclipsa slightly out of her stupor, enough to make her see properly, at least.

"It was. Why?"

"Because if it was, then he managed to do that in the span of five minutes…" Globgor mumbled. "And the blood means he hadn't healed his wounds by then. But...why was it only on the table?" He asked himself. "There's not a single drop on the floor. Did he make himself bleed on purpose?"

"What are you talking about?" Eclipsa asked. "Did you _just _see Bren? Today?"

"Technically, yes and no," Globgor said. "It's a...it's a long story."

"Feel free to tell me…" Eclipsa said. "Although I might fall asleep in the middle of it. I don't think that one-hour nap did me any kind of justice."

"Noted," Globgor said grimly, and with a sigh, he began to recount the long and winding tale…

**One exaggerated, confusing, and nonsensical explanation later…**

"And…that's the whole story." Globgor finished. "He's gone, not himself anymore, and we have no idea if he's going to stick with his original plan or switch to something...worse."

"..."

"..."

"So...Bren was possessed this whole time," Eclipsa said, wanting to confirm the rollercoaster of a story that she just heard.

"Yes."

"But his original self is actually a _worse _person that murdered his own family."

"Yup."

"And...Moon's hand is broken, "Bren" is heavily injured to the point where he should be dead, his blood is blue, three people at the hospital are dead, one of which was a knight from the Jaggy kingdom, River is receiving care for his fall, Zudo is missing _again_...and Janna hobbled off with one of "Bren's" fingers and said that "this is our game-changer". Eclipsa listed, reciting every major event just described to her.

"That...is everything that happened, yes," Globgor confirmed. "The knights are out looking for Zudo, and Janna is probably cooking something up for us. Hopefully some kind of weakness related to Demon Magic, as that is her area of expertise. But I'm still more concerned about "Bren" and what _he's _planning to do."

"Are we still going to call him by that name?" Eclipsa asked.

"Considering we don't know what his real name was, there's no other option besides numerous curses that I'd rather not say with Meteora right there," Globgor said. "It's all we have at the moment, and likely all we're ever _going _to have. He didn't tell us who he was back at the hospital, and the note didn't say anything about that either. So I think it's plain to see that he'd rather us not be aware of his true identity." He sighed again. "Not that it makes much of a difference, but still…"

"What did the note say by the way?" Eclipsa asked/pondered. "I assume he was just introducing himself, based on how it started."

"Something like that," Globgor said. "He talked about how he's not Bren anymore, and how he has a few new surprises for us in store that he's already thought of. But I think a bigger issue with that is how easily he infiltrated the Temple and just casually left this thing on our _kitchen table." _He stated. "We have to go to Janna. See if she can cast some kind of spell from her book around this place that denies him entry. It doesn't matter if he's not going to kill us that way, it's best for everyone if he's not creeping around in here. He could have killed you in your sleep, kidnapped Meteora...or worse." He grimaced.

"Agreed," Eclipsa said. "If I wasn't half-asleep right now, I'm sure I'd be freaking out about that. But what if Janna doesn't have a spell like that?"

"I'm pretty sure she does," Globgor said confidently. "Back at the hospital, Bren, the one with the orange eyes, mentioned how Demon Magic can create protection spells. Powerful ones. We can use those."

"It'll come at a cost." Eclipsa reminded him. "Remember, we had to use several objects to send that demon back to the Underworld. Marco's blood, Star's horns, and that tennis ball. We also had to make a giant circle on the ground. All that...just for one teleportation spell. I'm worried because I imagine that a barrier permanently keeping "Bren" and Tom out will come at a much greater cost."

"Duly noted," Globgor said. "But whatever it is, we'll pay it, unless it's someone's life or memories or stuff like that."

"You probably just jinxed us." Meteora said, although it came out as "u obely ust ink is" in her baby talk, completely incomprehensible to anyone. Seeing the stares from her parents after the fact and realizing that they hadn't understood a word she just said, Meteora huffed and went back to drowning herself with tap water.

"...Right." Globgor said. "But like I was saying, we should be prepared to pay _almost_ any price. And if we have time, we should try and place barriers around things like the Diazes house, Moon's house in the woods, the council meeting place, and a few other buildings that we wouldn't want "Bren" getting anywhere near."

"It sounds like a good idea," Eclipsa said. "But one for later, unfortunately. For now…"

"Yes. How we should deal with all this is the main concern." Globgor said. "I'd call a meeting together, but considering that we _just _had one...I don't think many people would show up, even now."

"They would if you told them the story you just told me," Eclipsa said. ""Bren" is gone, someone more horrible and unpredictable has taken his place, and we may all be dead _very _soon, as this one might not have the same level of patience as his predecessor."

"Technically, as the original, _he's_ the predecessor." Globgor pointed out. "But I see your point. However…" He shook his head. "I think it's best if we try and solve this right now, just the two of us. Like you just said, we may all be dead soon. We have to figure out a solution for this as quickly as possible_. _Before things get more complicated..."

"That reminds me…" Eclipsa mumbled. "Did...you investigate the buildings Janna told us to check out? The ones where she thought bombs might be placed in?"

"It's being done as we speak," Globgor said. "I sent a few knights over after giving them a map of the location, and if they find any, they'll ring the Temple and alert us."

"Okay...but what if they _do _find any?" Eclipsa asked. "They might be rigged to go off if we try to remove them, and with most of the police officers dead, Echo Creek is lacking in a proper bomb removal squad. _And…" _She winced. "You confirmed that "Bren" confirmed that the government is making sure nobody stops him, just like we suspected. We won't get any help if we reach out."

"We…" Globgor paused. "Then we don't try to disarm them. You're right. Without a proper way to do so, any attempt at disabling the bombs is far too dangerous. No, we'll just pick them up and take them somewhere where no one will be hurt if they go off."

"And that place is…?"

"...I haven't figured that out yet." Globgor admitted. "Janna suggested that we dump them in the Underworld during our mission to save Tom's parents, so we can take care of two problems at once, but I'm not so sure. I get that the whole sub-dimension is already on fire, but I'm not sure how happy the Lucitors would be by us literally dumping our problems on them."

"Saving their lives from Bren would make up for it," Eclipsa said, trying to keep her head from flopping onto the table. "But…" She halted mid-sentence and bit her lip. "Hmm…"

"What is it?"

"Just a thought. We can discuss it after the next idea." Eclipsa said. "Which is...what if the bombs go off when we're trying to remove them?"

"If all the bombs go off, and we're removing them, then suddenly it's not our problem anymore," Globgor said drily. "It's whoever's left."

"Sort of selfish, don't you think?"

"We'd be dead, I don't think being selfish would be that high on our list of concerns anymore." Globgor deadpanned. "But at least we wouldn't have to deal with any of it."

Eclipsa looked away forlornly. "That _would _solve matters, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah...but let's not get any crazy or stupid ideas, desperate as we are," Globgor warned. "But what were you going to say? That thought you had?"

"I was wondering if the situation with the Lucitors will change," Eclipsa said. "Bren no longer exists. That...thing you told me about had taken his place, possibly in a permanent way. And he's a worse person than his predecessor...successor...whatever." She waved it off. "But the point is that I wonder if he's going to treat the Lucitors and Tom the same way."

"Most likely. He still needs Tom to get around." Globgor said. "And I doubt _he_ knows anything about the eyes and how "Bren" is a different person now. I think the orange-eyed one would only have seen it as a risk. But either way, I don't think it'd matter much. Bren or not, whoever has that trigger controls the Lucitor's fate, and therefore controls Tom. If "Bren" killed both his parents, then Tom would have no reason to not tear him apart right then and there. No more leverage, no more control, no more nothing."

"There's a problem with that," Eclipsa said. ""Bren" no longer has the trigger. It was smashed back at the hospital. Tom only _assumes _he has it. As of right now, "Bren's" got nothing to threaten him with."

"I'm not so sure about that." Globgor disagreed. "If you were Bren, and that remote was the only way to contact your cronies in the Underworld as well as control Tom, would you only have one?"

"...Definitely not." Eclipsa sighed. "I'd have dozens stored away, considering how important it is."

"Exactly. I don't think smashing that remote did anything." Globgor said. "Odds are he already has a new one. Went back to the Underworld to grab a spare right after coming here."

"If that's the case, then going to the Underworld truly _is _the only way to save Tom." Eclipsa leered. "But how do we even inform him if the mission to save his parents is successful? The second "Bren" hears of it, he's going to do everything in his power to make sure that Tom doesn't know."

"There's actually something I forgot to mention…" Globgor mumbled. "The remote he has. It's not a kill trigger that blows up a collar placed around the King and Queen's neck or something like that when you press the button. It's a communication device. He calls someone down in the Underworld and gives the order to execute one or both of them. Zudo witnessed it himself back at the mansion."

"Really? Then in that case…"

"Yup. We can just call "_Bren" _if we get our hands on the device belonging to his minions and scream at that thing that Tom's parents are no longer in danger the second he answers." Globgor said. "If Tom's nearby, which I'm betting he will be, he'll hear and burn him to ashes. Problem solved. Although there is a problem with that, as we don't want to kill "Bren" just yet. As much as I don't want to do it, we still have to charge him for all the crimes he's committed and set up a trial.

"Well, the Bren that committed most of those crimes currently doesn't exist at the moment, and might never again," Eclipsa said. "If we or he lets that slip during it, then the trial will be rendered moot. We can't charge him for something he technically had no control over."

"But it was still _him," _Globgor said. "He still made a deal with the Fire-god to kill Star. And if that doesn't work, then we'll charge him for the murder of his family, which he _himself_ admitted to. There's no escaping that. Even if they're from another dimension, it's still murder."

"We don't have their bodies, how can we be sure he wasn't lying just to unnerve all of you?"

"He wasn't lying. He wouldn't lie about something like that for a _reason_ like that."

"That's not the point," Eclipsa said, before sighed. "But all in all, it will be quite difficult to accuse him of anything at the current moment. Not while he's like…" She waved her hand around. "...this. And his lawyer could just plead insanity and get him free of the death penalty. He definitely fits the bill, if the insane giggling you mentioned is anything to go by."

"Then we'll hire a crappy lawyer for him on purpose. We're gonna make sure he doesn't receive much in the defense department." Globgor said.

"...I'm not sure if that's illegal or not…" Eclipsa mumbled.

"It probably is, but does it matter?"

"It does, due to what I just said," Eclipsa muttered. She rested her elbows on the table and facepalmed. "No matter how we capture him, it's all useless if we accuse him of crimes and can't prove he did them. First off, he doesn't have any documentation. We have no records of his date of birth or where he even came from. I assume we need those to throw a proper trail for him."

"...No, we don't." Globgor said. "We can just have the Mayor make a few laws _just this once _so we can punish him without any unnecessary legal shenanigans."

"Is this what it's come to?" Eclipsa asked out spreading her arms. "Bending the law so we can execute him? That makes us criminals as well."

"You know what?" Globgor said. "It does. It really does, Eclipsa. But at this point, I'm tempted to go against my reasoning and just throw him into a crowd like Moon says once we capture him. Because as bloodthirsty as she was, she made a few good points. He shouldn't be kept alive for any longer than necessary. He's too dangerous, unpredictable, and we can't take a single chance. He even said, "if I die, it won't matter because others will finish the job". Therefore, if we capture him, we have to get rid of him as soon as possible before his cronies come up and break him out or finish the job."

"Then why didn't you kill him back at the hospital?" Eclipsa asked, feeling like this conversation was going in circles. "You had the power to do so. The knights would have gladly torn off his head. For corn's sake, they probably would have fought over who got to do it!"

"If I had issued a kill order, then I wouldn't have stopped Moon and just let her finish him off," Globgor replied. "And I wanted to. Every fiber of me was screaming to not stop her. To just stay that you didn't get there in time. Nobody would argue. Nobody would complain. They'd all accept it as fact because they liked the outcome."

"Then why didn't you?" Eclipsa repeated. "You didn't answer my question."

"Because _again..._that's not the way we do things!" Globgor grumbled. "We _can't _just kill like that. We're _better _than him. We have to show that we are, and...and…"

For a second, Globgor lost his momentum. Then he exhaled and facepalmed just like Eclipsa had, shaking his head and wondering how this discussion turned south so quickly.

"Mom, Dad, please stop fighting." Meteora requested, coming out as "ma, da, pee sta faing". The two glanced at her again and saw the desperate/irritated look in her eyes, clearly not happy with the way her parents were conversing with each other. She climbed down to the floor and crawled over to her mother, leaning against her leg and staring up at her like a cat begging for attention. Eclipsa looked away guiltily before picking Meteora up and cradling her in her arms.

"I can't do this anymore." She said. "All this arguing."

"Is it arguing?"

"If it's not, it's going to be soon," Eclipsa said. "This is getting us nowhere. We have too many loose ends to discuss, and we need to come up with a proper plan that _doesn't _involve the legal system. Because all of that is something to deal with assuming we even catch him in the first place. We're getting ahead of ourselves."

"We're still aiming to catch him, correct?" Globgor said. "Our objective hasn't changed at all despite this little...development?"

"No. We want him alive." Eclipsa said. "Although you can approve of unnecessary violence in his capture and if he "accidentally" dies during it, we'll pass it off as just that. An accident."

"..."

"What is it?"

"Oh, Mewni…" Globgor exclaimed, suddenly burying his face in his hands. "I just remembered. I can't believe I forgot to tell you. He was able to survive all those wounds I was telling you about because he _can't _die."

"What do you mean?" Eclipsa asked. "Is-is his species incapable of dying through wounds or-"

"It's not that," Globgor interjected. "He commented on how the Fire-god won't let him die until he's completed his mission and killed us all. That bastard of a god-"

"Asturd!" Meteora exclaimed, causing Eclipsa to shoot Globgor a "really?" look.

"Sorry." He said sheepishly. "But _that guy _hates us just as much then. This means that even though we can injure Bren any which way, he'll just stay alive no matter what."

"...That just creates more questions." Eclipsa mumbled. "If we chop his head off, does the head stay alive, or the body, or both? Can he just reattach it like a LEGO set or something?"

"...I honestly do not know how to respond to that." Globgor said, struck dumb by the mental image. "But either way, I think we can assume that we don't have to be careful while taking him in. He may not have his possession powers...hopefully, but he's invulnerable to dying."

"Then that makes this much easier for us," Eclipsa said. "If we just chop off both his arms, then boom!" She threw her own in the air, causing Meteora to let out a tiny "wheeeee!" "He has no power. No device, no way to cast those one magic spells, and no leverage against Tom."

"Two of those were the same thing." Globgor pointed out.

"But you get it, right?" Eclipsa asked. "We make him helpless without any fear of killing him prematurely…...oh." She paused. "Then this means he can't be executed, at least not the way we want, and the citizens certainly won't be happy about that."

"Not a problem," Globgor said. "Janna mentioned to me before I left that there was a spell capable of completely ridding a person of the Fire-gods' influence. All we have to do is blast him with that."

"Well, that's convenient," Eclipsa said. "So...summing it all up, the next thing we're going to do is rescue Tom's parents, which will result in him beating "Bren" to the ground, he won't die, we can apprehend him, and then Janna will use that spell to get rid of his immortality so we can execute him and finally end this mess. Yes?"

"...That's probably an extremely abridged version, and I'm not so sure about the Tom part, but yeah. This seems to be the best way to go about things." Globgor said. "Of course, something's bound to happen along the way that'll cause that plan to take a turn."

"Most likely." Eclipsa agreed, knowing full well that nowadays plans like that rarely went as...planned. "Based on what you've told me, I suspect that the U.S. government, Bren's helpers in the Underworld, or the god of fire himself will swoop down and try to prevent this from happening. We have to find a way to permanently take care of _them _as well."

"The government's not going to be so easy, so I think we should handle them first," Globgor said. "Bren told us that they're not helping us in exchange for Demon Magic, which they're likely going to use for war methods. We have to stop that from happening. Normal magic was capable of wiping out an entire dimension. I can only imagine what magic that was made by a God who created hell itself can do."

"Don't forget about the price, however." Eclipsa reminded him. "If they want to use Demon Magic in wars, I imagine it will be quite difficult even _if _they know all the rituals. Attack spells like that take up immense amounts of energy normally, so I imagine attack spells with _Demon Magic_ will take immense amounts of sacrifices and rituals and whatnot."

"True. But you're forgetting who we're talking about." Globgor said. "The government probably has more access to blood and sacred objects and whatever else they need to cast those spells than we could ever get our hands on. It might be irritating to cast the spells, but I'm sure that it will become a walk in the park when it comes to actually _getting _the sacrificial objects."

"...That is a problem, isn't it?" Eclipsa asked rhetorically, putting a hand to her chin.

"I'm sure it will be eventually. But let's focus." Globgor said. "First off, we're not trying to topple the government when we said, "we need to take care of them permanently". We're just trying to get them off our back and not interfere with "Bren's" matters. Also to get them to cut ties with him."

"I know. It's not like we'd be able to accomplish much anyway if we tried to advocate an actual overthrow." Eclipsa said. "Even the Royals wouldn't want to try and take over the country. That presentation I gave them on Earth weaponry would have them all running scared the second anyone pulled out a gun."

"Exactly. So we need to find a way to...peacefully convince them to help us and ignore Bren." Globgor said. "Preferably without a single drop of blood being spilled. I've already seen enough of that for one day. And the rest of my life…"

Eclipsa nodded after this, before glancing over and frowning at the bloody blue paper towels, now sitting in a nearby trash can. "Don't you think this is something we should take care of _after _we beat "Bren"?" She asked. "Not before?"

"How so?"

"I mean, look at it this way," Eclipsa said, who after so many explanations, was now only 25% asleep. "Let's assume for a second that the U.S. government had been spying on us and how we're dealing with Bren to make sure that we don't get _too _much of an edge on him so they still get their magic. If this were the case, don't you think they would have stepped in by now? Look at today. He's been beaten to a bloody pulp. You said all of his limbs were broken, bones were exposed, and he lost most if not all of his blood."

"Only most," Globgor said. "Some of it ended up on our kitchen table."

"Yes, well, a problem that has already been taken care of," Eclipsa mumbled. "But don't you see my point? If they want "Bren" alive, I think they'd have interfered to keep him that way once they saw we were winning."

"That _would _make sense...if Bren wanted them to interfere in the first place," Globgor said. "Remember, one of their agreements was that they shouldn't step in and get involved with his affairs. I don't think that just means they're not allowed to stop him. I think it means they're not allowed to try and _help _him either. Bren wanted all the-"

"_Wanted?" _Eclipsa repeated. "As in past tense?"

Globgor paused before shrugging. "Well, god knows what he's thinking right now." He said. "But like I was saying, he wanted all the glory for himself. Brudo, Tom, that giant demon, they all are or were just slaves to him. That demon was mindless. Tom doesn't have any free will at this point. And based on what Zudo told me on the way over to the hospital, Brudo didn't care about Star. Zudo thinks he was only after _Ludo_ because of the "disgrace" he brought on the Avarius family." Globgor explained, air quotes and all. "None of them had a beef with Star. But...and god, I hope this ain't true, but the government might. For merging Mewni with part of their country."

"Why would they be angry about that?" Eclipsa asked. "It's raked in more tourism money, more taxes, and frankly boost-"

"It's more than that," Globgor interjected, using the same tone a professor might use while addressing a class. "How much do you know about human history?"

"...A decent amount."

"And how big a role did racism and all the issues we dealt with monsters and Mewmans play in that history?"

Eclipsa frowned and began to see what her husband was getting at. "...A very big one. To the point where it's still going on today, even in the most developed countries. That Earth history class was _very _informative about all of it."

"Precisely," Globgor said. "You think the government wanted to solve all the problems a whole new _species _showing up is going to cause when they can't even effectively help their own without the citizens stepping in? The answer, of course, is no. They didn't want to have to deal with us, but they were practically forced to. And _this..._is their opportunity to fix the problem."

"...I'm not sure I like the phrasing of this," Eclipsa said. "You're saying like they intend to let "Bren" _wipe us all out. _And if he doesn't succeed, then they'll swarm in here and finish the job themselves."

"That wasn't my intention, sorry," Globgor said, seeing the sudden horrified expression on his wife's face. "But I think they at least want us out of the way. Somewhere where we can't cause problems or start ruining things."

"Out of the way…" Eclipsa mumbled. "...I think I get it now." She said. "You're right. They don't want to wipe us out entirely. But you're also right in that they want us out of their hair." She stood up and started pacing around, spouting an explanation as she walked round and round the kitchen table. "They want Demon Magic. In exchange for Bren killing us all, or at least Star and the rest of the Butterfly family, they get it. But after they get their hand on such a power, what to do with the survivors…" She pondered, before snapping her head up as the truth came to her.

"That's it." She breathed.

"What's it?"

"They don't want Demon Magic for _war," _Eclipsa said. "They're not going to use it to blow things up. They already have enough weapons capable enough of doing that. They want to use it for the _teleportation _spell. The same one that we sent that demon to the Underworld with!" She explained. "That's what they're going to do with anyone who's left! Anyone Bren doesn't kill they're just going to send someplace else so we're not their problem anymore!"

Globgor was about to open his mouth and say something, but Eclipsa kept going in circles and talking, causing Meteora to clutch her head from dizziness as she watched her mother go round and round.

"It makes perfect sense." She stated. "They're scared because Tom has the same abilities, so of course they'd be most interested in that one! They won't even have to _fight _wars with that! All they have to do is show up in an enemy base, plant a bomb with a time limit of five seconds, and get out!"

"I think that's still technically a war-" Globgor started, but Eclipsa interrupted him again, not even appearing to have heard his words.

"The government could use this to make the country become the most powerful country in the world overnight! Anyone they don't want around, they could just assassinate. And nobody could ever track it back to them because one, they could just teleport in, two, anyone who knows about Demon Magic in this town will have already been killed by Bren and everyone else will have been sent to live in the middle of nowhere, and three, everyone thinks magic is gone anyway! We convinced them all of it months ago! And now because of that, we've doomed the rest of the world to live under a regime-"

"ECLIPSA!" Globgor shouted, causing her to freeze in place. Her gaze darted towards him, where she saw him standing two feet away from her, staring her down with a worried expression. "Please...stop. I get it. I understand how worried you are. I am too. But this is getting us nowhere, just like earlier."

"I...yes. I apologize." She said, finally catching her breath. "I just got a little carried away."

"It's alright," Globgor said, pulling her and Meteora into a hug. "Again, nobody is going to blame you for freaking out or being worried at a time like this. I'm barely keeping myself under control at the moment. I know it's all a lot to handle. It seems like the whole world against us at the moment."

"I fear that that's more accurate then we know," Eclipsa said. "Which is why we have to-"

A sudden ringing sound blared out before Eclipsa could finish her sentence, making both her and Globgor flinch in surprise. They both turned to the source of the noise, which was the phone sitting on the end of the kitchen counter, old and covered in dust. Globgor looked back at Eclipsa, who nodded at him. He grunted and walked over to the device before picking it up.

"Yes?" He said expectantly. "Who is this?"

"King Globgor." A voice said, which he quickly recognized as the voice of one of the knights that he had brought to the hospital. "It is me, Sir Wirae, the leader of the group you sent to investigate the bombs you believed were hidden in buildings. I'm afraid we have...urgent news."

'Well, this could go one of two ways.' Globgor thought, hoping that the second one wasn't the one that came to pass. "And what did you find?" He asked.

"..."

"..."

"Well?"

"...They're there." The knight said nervously, as if he had been worried to tell the truth. "All the buildings with those hidden rooms have bombs in them. Every last one, your majesty."

Globgor felt his breath being taken away at this, both by pure fear and terror. Even though he had been _expecting_ the bombs to be there, hearing the news that they actually _were _was an entirely different experience altogether. Every last one he had said. Every building had a bomb. He couldn't even remember how many there had been. He was almost too scared to try and recall it.

"H-how many?" He asked shakily. "How many are there?"

"The total count is still partially incomplete, my king." The knight said. "There may still be more hidden in places we don't know about, so we decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to start making conclusions until-"

"Just tell me how many you've _already_ found," Globgor demanded.

"...36." The knight said hesitantly. "The preliminary count so far is 36."

_36\. _Globgor once again felt dizzy as the room started to spin. _36\. _Even if they were all only half as strong as the bomb that took out Mansion Avarius, it would be more than enough to wipe Earthni off the map, along with all its inhabitants. And right _now, _if "Bren" set off even _one, _it would be nothing short of chaos. The town was hanging on by a thread when it came to peace and riots, order and chaos. If another bad thing happened, then that would _truly _be the end. The citizens would rise up and take control of things for themselves. Assuming, of course, that there were any citizens left by the end of it.

"Damn it…" Globgor whispered. "He got us."

"What was that, my king?"

"Nothing," Globgor said, before taking a deep breath. "Okay. Here are your orders. I want you to move the bombs away from the buildings, but make sure to be as careful as possible. In fact, I think it would be best if you avoid touching them with your bare hands. It's possible Bren might have rigged them to go off if anyone other than him touches them using bare skin."

"I understand." The knight said. "And how far away should we move them?"

"Um…give me a second," Globgor said, before turning to Eclipsa. "Where's a place where we can set a bomb off safely and deal no harm to any buildings or citizens?"

Eclipsa looked at him strangely. "Why would you want to know…" She started, before groaning again and resting her forehead on the table. "Oh Mewni, the bombs are there, aren't they? Every last one of them?"

"...Yeah." Globgor said softly, looking away again. "But...where's a good place to set them off?"

"I think that would be…wait." She said, as a sudden mischievous grin came across her face. It was one Globgor had only seen once before, when she suggested that they start feeding vegetables to Meteora, after which both of them laughed. And considering the situation, this immediately made his heart jump to his stomach. "I have an idea. But first, do we still have a fire department? Did they take any casualties in the bombing yesterday?"

"Maybe one or two, but not as much as the police," Globgor said. "Why?"

"Because we might need them…" Eclipsa said. "Okay. Here's what we do. We don't move them to some remote area like the middle of the desert. Instruct all the knights to _instead _move them to the Sanctuary."

"The _Sanctuary?" _Globgor repeated. "In the middle of the woods, which will certainly catch fire and spread if those things go off?"

"That's why I asked you if we had a fire department," Eclipsa revealed. "We can have them at the ready just in case. Think about it. If those things blow up the Sanctuary, "Bren" not only misses the opportunity to kill more citizens, but he will _also _be destroying his church to that Fire-god! His own weapons turned against him. We're in due need for a victory, and that will most certainly be a good one. I think we should do it. Finally, strike back for a change."

"...As much as I'd like that to happen, it's too much of a risk." Globgor said, making Eclipsa's smile fade off her face in an instant. "For one thing, they may go off before we move them all there, which won't be good. For another, even if the fire department is there to put out the blaze, I don't think they're properly equipped for forest fires. I'm not an expert on that kind of stuff, but I'm pretty sure that the procedure when it comes to building fires and forest fires are two very different things. And since this town has never had a fire like that in all its history...they may not be trained for it. It could be a disaster, and we might not have time to pull in firefighters from other towns to help."

Eclipsa sighed and picked her head up slightly before banging it down on the table _again_, making Meteora jump and crawl down one of its legs onto the floor. "Well, I still think we should do it." She said. "If "Bren"-"

"He'd get Tom to kill us all immediately afterwards." Globgor said. "Remember the meeting he crashed? When he talked to Star about some mysterious place, and that if she damaged it or destroyed it he'd just come by and kill her? It took me a while, but now it's painfully obvious that he was talking about the Sanctuary. If we trick him into blowing it up, he'll have Tom teleport right in front of us and then he'll personally stab us in the face with a knife as revenge."

"Would he?" Eclipsa asked. "Remember what he is right now. He's not possessed. He's not under the control of the Fire-god. He's weak, and he's injured. Based on the descriptions you gave me, I'm not sure if he's even able to lift his arm, much less stab someone before they can stop him."

"He ran away in a full sprint even with both his legs bent in at least five different directions. It was like watching a puppet with a hundred strings attached to every inch of their body." Globgor said. "Trust me, he's still fully capable of killing people. And even if he wasn't, he'd just get Tom to blast them with a fireball. And…" He shook his head. "...He's still in control of the Underworld and has demons at his disposal. He could send a horde of them right now to wipe us all out if he wanted."

Eclipsa huffed. "Well, it was just a _suggestion-"_

"I know, and I get it," Globgor said, not wanting this to deliver into _another_ argument. "We both want to make him pay for what he's done. But blindly doing stuff like _this _is not the way to do it. There are too many unknown variables, and where we are now, we can't afford to have a single one. We have to make sure that we're in complete control of the situation before we try anything Eclipsa."

"I'm pretty sure you've said that already."

"I probably have, but it just needs repeating," Globgor said. "So...do you have any _other _ideas for where we can move those bombs too?"

Eclipsa appeared to think about it for a moment before lifting her head and gazing upwards at her husband. "The hill of flags." She said. "There are hardly any streets or buildings nearby it, meaning we can move the explosives there relatively quickly without having to worry about rubble. And it's also completely abandoned. The town government abolished the holiday when they learned of the barbarism involved in it, and the hill now simply stands as a memorial to those who died participating in the game."

"Uhh...isn't the fact that it's a memorial a good example of why we _shouldn't _blow it up?" Globgor asked. "I mean, you're right, it's deserted and in the middle of nowhere to the point where there's nothing around it for almost half a mile, but wouldn't that be seen as disrespectful for the ones who died?"

"Possibly, but I don't think anyone is going to care at the moment. And besides, the only ones who _will _are the old Johansen Royals and some of the Butterflies, and nobody cares about what they have to say." Eclipsa said. "There was a reason, after all, why most of the regular noble families weren't invited to be on the council."

"I thought that was because we'd need a meeting building the size of a soccer stadium, and nobody wanted to build that," Globgor recalled.

Eclipsa shrugged. "That was only one of the reasons. But the other is that they have no power anymore. When I created the law that got most of the monsters their ancestral homes and land back, they lost most of _their_ land as well. And after Earth merged with Mewni...they owned no more land than any common person, and really, that was where their power came from. The land. So another reason why we didn't put them in the council was because we felt the citizens would complain if they found out that these 100-year-old nobles who own no land and have no more influence get to help make all the decisions."

"Did the families _themselves _complain about this little arrangement?" Globgor asked.

"Yes," Eclipsa replied. "I believe most of their letters are still unread…"

"...Okay, then it's settled. We'll move the bombs to the back of the hill, placing them at a distance of around a hundred feet apart for each one. That should be more than enough space." Globgor announced, before turning to the phone. "Sir Wirea, we need you to place the bombs-"

"No need, I heard everything," Wirea said. "You didn't cover the phone after all. And yes, my king, we shall place the bombs there, at the Hill of Flags, at a distance of about a hundred feet apart. Leave it to us. We will not fail you."

"Well okay," Globgor said. "Thank you, Wirea. Good luck."

"We don't need luck, my king, but thank you anyway," Wirea said, and the phone line suddenly went dead as he hung up. Globgor stared at the phone for a moment before placing it on the counter and chuckling.

"That should be more than enough space…" He repeated. "Hopefully, at least. I should have said something else. I mean, the hill is pretty big, but to hold _all _those bombs…"

"If they run out of space, then they can place some at the bottom of the lake." Eclipsa offered. "Worst comes to worst, a few people get soaked."

"Yeah, along with the extinction of every fish species in the lake and a possible mini tidal-wave that could swamp the town." Globgor pointed out, before frowning at his wife. "Eclipsa...are you sure you're feeling okay? No offense, but ever since we started talking, you've been acting...odd. Like you're not fully thinking things through before the words leave your mouth."

"You can blame that on the sleep deprivation. Like I told you earlier." Eclipsa said. "The only rest I've gotten in the past two days is a one hour nap that I woke up from just a while ago. I'd fall asleep now, but I feel like I have more important things to deal with."

Globgor blinked twice at her and then sighed. "Eclipsa, what did I say at the meeting?"

"I know what you're about to say, so I'm just going to skip to the end," Eclipsa said. "You would have woken me up anyways to talk about what happened at the hospital, and we would've eventually come to this point no matter what."

"...Okay, fair. But I didn't know things were going to be dragged out for this long." Globgor said. "So...go back to bed. And this time get something more than an hour's worth. Even if there's an uncountable number of things to handle, Eclipsa, I can't have you so sleep-deprived that you're unable to do _any_ of them without coming up with some crazy idea."

"But what if something happens while I'm-" Eclipsa started, before perking her head up and looking around. "...Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Globgor asked. "Because if you're hearing something strange, that could be the lack of sleep. I think that staying awake for too long can cause hallucinations, even auditory one-"

"No...I don't think this is imaginary." Eclipsa said. "It sounds like...yelling?"

"What are you-" Globgor said, before stopping short. Just like his wife, he started glanced around widely, like a person trying to find a fly that had flown in through the window. "...I...what is that?"

"It sounds like it's coming from outside," Eclipsa said, before getting up and walking out of the room. Globgor was quick to follow her, with Meteora crawling after them at a speed an infant like her shouldn't possibly be able to accomplish. The three made it to the front door and opened it, where they saw a large group of people, humans, Mewmans, and monsters alike, coming up the hill that led to the Temple. All of them were shouting, although, from this distance, combined with how indecipherable their voices were with everyone rambling on at the same time, Eclipsa and Globgor had no idea what they were saying.

Although they had a pretty good idea.

"Ah. Protesters. Wonderful." Eclipsa deadpanned. "I don't suppose I can say that we didn't see this coming. It was only a matter of time until someone got angry."

"It hasn't even been a full day since the explosion," Globgor said with a shocked expression. "Did they spend all that time organizing this, or was it just something they had planned _before _Mansion Avarius was blown up?"

"Either way, we should deal with it now," Eclipsa recommended. "Before things get out of hand."

"I'm not too worried right now." Globgor scoffed. "What are they even going to _do? _Storm the Temple? For all they know, there are a hundred trained guards inside just waiting for someone to pull something stupid."

"...We don't even have a single guard here." Eclipsa said. "We sent them all home after the blast to be with their families." She sighed. "I suppose I regret that slightly now."

"No, it was the right thing to do," Globgor said. "But either way, it's irrelevant now. I'll take care of this. Go back inside and find a place to hide in case things get messy. I'd recommend Meteora's nursery. Wait there until I get back, and-"

"I'm not doing that," Eclipsa announced, as the protesters turned the final corner that led up the hill. "It doesn't matter if we're undefended, I'm not going to hide away and cower in front of my own citizens. I am the Queen of Earthni, and if I ran and hid then I'd be nothing but a coward. I'll hide Meteora, but afterwards, I'm coming right back out, and then we're facing this together."

"Eclipsa, it wasn't a request," Globgor said. "I know you may disagree, I know you think you have to help, but I'm going to say what I've already said a countless number of times. Go back inside, hide somewhere, and maybe try to get some sleep. I know it's an odd thing to ask with a literal angry mob at our doorstep, but you're not going to be able to help if you suddenly collapse of exhaustion during a crucial moment."

"..."

"..."

"...Fine. I'll go get some sleep and hide Meteora." Eclipsa said, although now, what with the protesters and those new revelations from the hospital incident, she had no plans to do so. "But I'm trusting you to take care of the situation out here."

"I will," Globgor said, who started walking towards the protesters. "When you wake back up, I promise we'll start tackling things together, but for now, get some rest."

"If you say so," Eclipsa mumbled, before backing up into the Temple and closing the door behind her. She kept her eye on Globgor for a moment, just in case the protesters tried to hit him with a bat the second they got close enough. But they stopped as he approached, and once it seemed like a decent conversation was being made between the two sides, Eclipsa retreated away from the window and went back into the kitchen, where she found Meteora sitting back on the counter and chewing on the phone. She took the device out of the baby's mouth, who began making grabbing motions at it. Eclipsa simply took a Marco doll out of her pocket (she almost always had one on hand) and gave it to her child, who eagerly snatched it with what the queen was sure were stars in her eyes. She then bit down on its head and started ripping it apart with her teeth, and small bits of cotton and fabric began falling onto the floor as the doll met its demise.

Eclipsa, meanwhile, had grabbed a piece of paper that had been stored in one of the many drawers surrounding her. On the piece of paper was a list of the castle phone numbers of every royal family in Mewni, with the ones on the council being right at the top, below Moons's home phone, the Diazes home phone, and Star's cell phone number.

Eclipsa wasn't planning to just go back to sleep of course. She had a duty to carry out. She was still the queen, one half of the Duumvirate, and that job would always require staying up late and waving sleep off for days at a time. And this moment, right here, was a perfect chance for her to sharpen her skills in ignoring the constant sleep deprivation.

At least, that's what her exhausted, easily convinced, and worn-out brain was telling Eclipsa, which was good enough for her. First things first, she had to let all the Royals know what had gone down at the hospital. If "Bren" was a completely different person now, who may be using completely different tactics, _along _with the fact that all those bombs were confirmed to exist, then they had to be informed of it so they could prepare. She glanced at the first name on the list that she knew was available. Star and Moon already knew what happened, and Eclipsa figured that the Diazes would currently be trying to comfort their son after what happened yesterday. They didn't need any mention of "Bren" right now.

So she dialed the first number on the list, the castle number of the Johansen kingdom, and waited for it to ring.

* * *

Outside: Calm, polite, collected, and just wanting to make conversation to see what the problem is.

Inside: Nervous, sweaty, jittery, like a time bomb that was about to go off.

That was what Globgor was at the moment as he approached the crowd of protesters that were coming up the hill to the Temple. He planned to address them as politely as possible and listen to every word they had to say, and then respond in kind with reassurances and possible remedies to whatever problem they were having.

Of course, none of this mattered if one of them started attacking him. Mostly because he couldn't attack _back_. While Globgor could grow to the size of a skyscraper and simply stomp on all these people like ants if they became hostile, that...wouldn't look good in the PR department. Plus, he did not and never would have plans of growing to gigantic size and going on a rampage like a red-furred version of King Kong. If he fought back, he would not only make himself _look _like a monster, but he'd _become _one as well. The same horrible, evil, Mewman-terrorizing monster he was before he met Eclipsa all those hundreds of years ago.

And that was the _last _(well, one of the last) things he wanted at the moment.

So his plan if they started swinging at him? Grow until he was the size of the Temple and just let them swing at his ankles. None of the protesters seemed to have any sort of weapons besides their fists, so it's not like they could actually _do_ anything to him. And if his sheer size didn't intimidate them to the point where they all scurried like rabbits, he'd give them "the speech" in a voice loud enough to shatter windows. He had been preparing it ever since the explosion, in the few precious minutes of free time he had had since then. It was to be used if the citizens ever started an uprising and stormed the Temple. He'd go on about how there's a baby inside, and how _dare _they attack and risk hurting her. And for the kicker, he would point out that hurting babies is exactly the kind of thing _Mina _would do. And almost did. So if they broken inside and risked hurting Meteora, then they were no better than the person who literally tried to genocide an _entire race_.

And hopefully, that would cause them to look at themselves in shame and walk away. Problem solved.

But of course, this was also something that Globgor _didn't _want to happen. He'd like to avoid any signs of aggression or intimidation if at all possible. Either of those things might make him and Eclipsa look like tyrants, which obviously, was something they were trying to avoid at the moment. He wasn't going to let these people put his family in danger, but he wasn't going to actively put them in harm's way either.

Globgor then stopped as all his plans finished being thought out. The protesters stopped a second later, only a few feet of space separating them. Both sides remained silent, as if they were waiting to see who would speak first. Finally, Globgor spoke, his voice low but courteous.

"How can I help you?" He asked, like the mob of people currently standing on his doorstep was a single salesman trying to sell him some useless product. The protesters were clearly surprised by this response, but the one at the front, a Mewman that Globgor didn't recognize, returned the greeting in kind.

"Hello, King Globgor." He said. "My name is Joseph. I am sure you are dumbfounded as to why we have organized this little protest today, since dealing with all your Royals matters must mean much more to you than dealing with ours."

'Well, if that isn't the most passive-aggressive response I've heard in my entire life.' Globgor thought, grimacing. The tone was polite like his own, but also smug as well, along with a little anger mixed in. But with a response like that, those emotions were to be expected. It was a full-blown accusation in its own way, and told Globgor exactly what he needed to know.

"I disagree slightly with that." He replied. "But as for this…"little protest" of yours, I hope you wouldn't mind telling me _why _you organized it?"

"Of course," Joseph said. He took out a stereotypical scroll from his pocket, unrolled it, and began to read it in such a way that Globgor was sure he must have practiced it a hundred times in front of a mirror. "King Globgor. We, the humans, Mewmans, and Monsters of Earthni and Echo Creek, come to you with _grievances." _He made sure to emphasize this word, speaking it only a single decibel louder than all the rest.

"...And what grievances are those?" Globgor asked, even though he was sure what the answer was already going to be.

"Simple," Joseph said, shoving the scroll back in his pocket. "Every single person here had a family member or close friend die in the explosion yesterday. An explosion which we believe you, your wife, the Mayor, and the rest of the Council could have prevented, but didn't due to incompetence."

'Yup. That's exactly what I was expecting.' Globgor thought. "I see." He said. "Well, I think I should inform you that we _couldn't _have stopped it, as we were not informed or tipped off about the blast in any way beforehand, and there were no signs that it was going to occur. The bomb that Bren set off yesterday was not targeted towards us or even you. He was getting revenge at Lord Brudo, and I guess he thought that blowing him and the mansion up was the best way to do it." Globgor took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what else to say. We simply didn't know, and we had no way to prevent it."

"You _didn't know?!" _Someone in the crowd shrieked. "Are you kidding me?! That's not good enough for us! My wife died yesterday, and the reason why is because you morons weren't even aware of what's happening in your own town?! I oughta-"

"Hush!" Joseph said, and the other person quickly fell silent. "We are not here to shout about our problems or solve this with force! We are not the Royals. We do things the _right _way! Raise your voice again and I will have someone else here drag you all the way home. Understand?"

"Y-yes." The protester said, looking away in shame.

"Good," Joseph said, before turning back to Globgor. "Please forgive him, _my king. _It's just that some people are a little..._salty, _shall we say, over the events of the past twenty-four hours. I assure you an outburst like that will _not _happen again."

"Glad to hear it," Globgor said, entirely without emotion. "Now please continue your grievances or demands."

"Very well," Joseph said. "As I told you, everyone here lost someone in the blast. And yet, over a day later, we still have no news. We've had a few official responses from the council, about how we should try to help the wounded, about how we should stay away from the main blast site, and as always, we should be on the lookout for Bren. However, there is a bit of a problem with these rules. Many people here have noticed that while us regular citizens are down there, cleaning everything up and picking up stones, building fragments, and _body parts _with our bare hands, you Royals haven't been seen doing much of anything. I haven't seen a single Royal helping with the cleanup, and frankly...we don't like that."

"We're not helping with the cleanup because we're trying to make sure that the town doesn't fall apart," Globgor said. "Most of the Mewman royalty have been working far into the night _and_ today, giving out orders and trying to keep their kingdoms together. And you may be right. They're not down there, literally getting their hands literally dirty. But they're still helping out in one way or another. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're sitting around doing nothing. Heck, just an hour or so ago, I was down at the Echo Creek hospital, attempting to capture Bren along with King River and Queen Moon!"

"Oh? And did you catch him?" Joseph asked, looking unimpressed. "Or did he manage to slip away _again?"_

Globgor reared back at the question, immediately regretting saying that. He was right after all. Bren _did _manage to slip away again, and now he'd have to admit it in front of all these people. Denying it would be pointless as well as idiotic, and if he just walked back inside that would only make him appear _more _guilty.

And Joseph staring at him like a predator that had cornered its prey confirmed that he knew this as well.

"I thought so." He said. "Let me guess. Something happened that prevented you from catching him. Maybe you were too distracted by something else. Or you just weren't prepared. Or maybe-"

"Enough," Globgor interjected, stepping forward and looming over Joseph, casting a shadow over them. He may not want to solve this with violence, but he was _not _going to stand there and let himself be insulted. "Get to the point. You're obviously angry about something specific. Just spit it out so I and the other Royals can try and fix it."

"Well, there's a few contradictions there." Joseph spat, clearly irritated with being interrupted. "You see, the Royals _are _our problems, as I'm sure you've guessed. You claim that they have been working into the night, trying to fix things. But don't think we're clueless in that regard either. Behold."

Joseph then stepped aside to reveal a large moose-like monster, whose arm was wrapped in a bandage covering what looked like several burn marks. The glare she was giving Globgor was so intense that if looks could kill, than Globgor would have been sent straight down to hell.

"This is Samantha," Joseph said. "She works at the Mayor's office, and was one of the people there that stayed up all night, trying to get things in order like so many other officials. Even with a freshly burned arm, she still did her job and did it without rest, without pause. _Every _important person in the town was there, restoring order as best they saw it…except for a _very _specific group of people. The _Royals. _Apart from your wife, Eclipsa, Samantha didn't see a single Royal there at any time. Even though the Mayor sent out an emergency call to "everyone important" informing them to come down to the office so that they could all work together. Yet the Royals never showed up! And neither did you! What were you doing that night Globgor? Tell me, or-"

"Or you'll _what?" _Globgor asked, taking another step forward as he began to lose his patience. "Remember what you said. You just told one of your followers that you want this to be carried out peacefully. Are you really going to go back on your _own_ order that soon?"

"I...hm." Joseph hummed, as if he just remembered saying that. "...Fair enough. But still. Would you mind telling your citizens where you were that night?"

"I was _here_, at the Temple, taking in everyone who wasn't injured but whose homes were decimated. They had nowhere else to go, so I opened the doors and let them all in." Globgor explained. "I may not have been down at the Mayor's office, or on the streets, but I was still helping any way I could."

"I see. And where are those people now?" Joseph asked. "Are they still inside?"

"No," Globgor said. "All of them left by their own choice a few hours ago. They wanted to see what was left when it became day again. See if they could salvage anything. _And _I told them that they were welcome to come back if they wanted to. None have, but trust me, the doors are open to them."

"Oh! Well, then would you mind letting us in?" Joseph asked. "The "doors are open" after all. Why don't you show us an example of your famous hospitality? I'm betting it would be a lot more comfortable for all of us if we discussed this inside…"

'You little…' Globgor thought, before calming himself. Yeah...screw that. Letting _them_ inside was not an option. They might be trying to do this peacefully, but it was obvious that most of them were fuming with rage, if the few dozen glares being pointed his way was anything to go by. Plus, the whole peaceful thing was clearly something they were not keen on doing and only saw it as a necessity, given at how their leader himself had freaked out just a minute ago.

"That's not happening," Globgor said. "I'm sorry, but I'm not letting you inside. The door is open to people whose homes are devastated and-"

"And you think ours aren't?" Joseph asked, spitting the last couple of words. "Why do you think we're here, instead of at home crying to ourselves over the loss of our loved ones? Because we have no home to go back to! Not only did we lose people close to us, but we lost all our houses and apartments and huts and everything else the people in this town use as living space!"

"Then why didn't you come here last night?" Globgor queried. "I don't recognize any of you, despite the fact that I had knights on the streets _calling out _to people that had their homes destroyed to gather in the Monster Temple so they wouldn't have to sit outside all night. Why...didn't you come in?"

"We were doing other things. Like...planning this protest." Joseph said. "You see, it wasn't just this incident that had us riled up. A few days ago we all met and discussed how this Bren problem seemed to be escalating, and the Royals were doing absolutely nothing about it. We came to a definite conclusion: Everything Bren has done could have been avoided. The demon attack was a perfect example. That thing caused god knows how much damage before it was stopped, even if that was a drop in the bucket compared to what we have now. It's a miracle that Lord Brudo did that tax day. If we all weren't in there at the time, then I estimate that most of us would be dead."

"You're only alive because of-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Globgor shut his mouth as quickly as he could, narrowly avoiding spilling the information that the only reason everyone survived the demon attack was because of Bren himself. That information hadn't been let loose to the public yet, because the Council believed that if everyone found out that the only reason no one died was because of the enemy, then that would only make them look _more _incompetent for not being prepared. As far as the townsfolk knew, the people that took down the demon were a group of brave knights sent out by the council, along with a few of their own members who later assisted the knights in taking down the beast.

But if the public learned that those knights had been nothing but a bunch of drunks and that Eclipsa, Marco, and Star were the "several other members" who charged in that day, then public opinion would turn around at an extremely fast rate. Those three might be praised, but everyone else? Not a chance in the world. They'd be condemned for cowardice for not jumping in the fray and fighting alongside their fellow members, even though they were at the tax day thing with everyone else and didn't even know that anything was going down.

However, this would only cause the citizens to dislike them even _more_. Once it was pointed out that the Royals were getting money at tax day and not staying at their castles, remaining ready to send out knights in case they were suddenly attacked by the enemy (as all the Royals were aware that someone with hostile intent was in the town, as per the previous meeting, _during which they ignored Star's warning and ran off_), there would be _more _protests. Riots. Calling for better leaders. It was a cruel example of the butterfly effect that all led to one thing: The dissolution of the town leadership, which would then be replaced with one set up by the normal citizens. And also one that had no chance against "Bren", since it would be mostly without any kind of military experience or even knowledge on how to properly run a town. The whole thing would descend into chaos, while the former council members would sit in a cell deep beneath the Earth for "crimes against Humanity, Mewmanity, and Monster...manity".

Or something like that.

But either way, telling the citizens any excess information about the demon attack was a poor idea, and everyone in the council agreed.

Unfortunately, back in the present, Joseph caught his slip up almost instantly and gave him a toothy grin.

"What was that?" He asked, leaning forward so much that it was almost a bow. "We're only alive because of what, Globgor?"

"I...you are not privy to that information," Globgor said. "If it gets out publicly, then it could be a risk because then Bren would learn it and cause more problems for us all."

"Oh sure, like he doesn't know already," Joseph said. "You know, Samantha has told me quite a few things. Things that I'm sure "the public" don't want to know about. Not seeing any Royals at the Mayor's office wasn't the only thing she noticed that night. She also...overheard a conversation between the Mayor and Eclipsa that might prove very interesting to us. Eclipsa was reminding the Mayor that _one, _Bren had apparently been planning this for months, two, he's likely bugged all the council meetings and thus knows every one of your secrets, and _three..._that the only reason any of us were still alive after the demon attack was because of Bren himself! The information that you just narrowly avoided giving us!"

"Wha-you _knew?!" _Globgor asked incredulously. "Then what was the point of even asking me in the first place?"

"To see if you would tell us the truth," Joseph said. "To see if our king would willingly lie about such a secret right in front of his own subjects, _to their faces_. What was it you said? If this secret got out, then Bren might know about it and cause more problems? Something stupid like that?"

Globgor didn't reply, sweat rolling down his brow as he realized that he had fallen directly into their trap. He shouldn't have lied, at least not with the official from the Mayor's office standing right there. That piece of info was practically _commonplace_ when it came to those people! He had completely forgotten about this mob's most valuable asset in the span of five seconds, and now he was paying the price in full.

But still...maybe he could use this. Globgor turned to the official, who was standing there with the smuggest of grins on her face.

"You." He said, pointing a finger at her. "I could easily report this and get you fired, you know. Heck, you might go to jail for this! That information was only allowed to be known to the members of the Council via a document we all signed, and you just spilled them. You could very easily be trialed for this."

For a moment, fear flickered over Samantha's face, only to vanish a second later. Instead, she threw her head back, laughing hysterically.

"You think I care?" She asked. "I already knew that. I was fully aware that what Eclipsa said was something that she didn't want to get out. I knew just how bad things could get for me if I went around telling everyone. But I can say this: It was worth it. This town is falling apart, needs someone better and stronger to fix it, and that information getting out is what will lead to it! A perfect example of the Council's incompetence. Soon we will-"

"Do what?" Globgor asked, and before they even had a chance to respond, he cleared his throat and let loose with everything he had. "Tell me, what are you going to do once we're gone? You have no leadership experience. You don't know how to rule. Most of the knights in this town still answer to us. Even if you imprison all the Royals, you'll still have to deal with them, and I'd _love _to know how you intend too. Also, another thing you'll have to fix is the millions of dollars of damage the demon and the explosion caused. We're trying to fix that along with everything else. Get rid of us, and it becomes your problem. I don't think any of you have a chance at getting your hands on that type of money, and even if you do, I'm sure you wouldn't even know where to start."

"H-hey," Joseph said. "We were-"

"I'm not done," Globgor growled. "And even if we put aside the complete lack of leadership ability, the knights that you'll have to somehow convince to join your side, as well as all the money problems, there's still the overhanging crisis that's currently plaguing our town. Bren." He spat. "You're right. We haven't been doing a good job of taking care of him. We underestimated him at first. We didn't know who we were dealing with and might have grown soft in the months since the Merge. But if _we _have no chance at beating, what do _you_ have? Again, the knights. They answer to us. The only way you could fight him is with a local militia made of the citizens, and you wouldn't last a few minutes if he decides to send prince Thomas, or _any _other demon for that matter, after you. Bren wants us Royals for himself. Take that away from him, and he'll go after the people who he thinks stole something that should have been his. So...how are you going to fight him? Go on, I'm listening."

"We…" Joseph started. "We can leave town. Pack everything up and start a new Earthni where Bren will never find us. We-"

"It won't work," Globgor said. "This is classified information I'm about to tell you, but since you're angry about the Royals keeping secrets, I think it's the best thing to do. And also to provide a perfect example of why this little…uprising is doomed to fail." He took a few more steps forward and loomed over them all, and everyone except Joseph took a couple of steps back. "Bren has infiltrated the government." He said. "The entire U.S. is technically under his control. He has been threatening them with Tom, saying that he'll teleport into the Oval Office or something and kill the president if they don't follow his commands. It's been extremely effective as far as we know. They now answer to him and him alone."

"Wha-what?!" Joseph said, looking like he was trying not to pass out. Meanwhile, everyone behind him shared a simultaneous gasp, clearly wondering if what Globgor claimed was the truth or not. "He's...infiltrated the government?! What does that even mean?! What does it mean for _us_?! Are we going to be attacked by the military one day right out of the blue?!"

"No," Globgor said. "And it means exactly what I told you. Bren has them under his bootheel. He can get them to do whatever he wants. But the only thing he _does_ want is for them to not interfere with his little plan to kill us all. That it's. Nothing else. As long as they stay where they are and let him blow us all up, he won't do anything."

"But...if this is true…" Joseph said, now sweating profusely like Globgor had been. "Then that means we won't get any aid from outside. We won't get any money or support or anything! And the government will try to cover up the fact that something is going on! Even if we try to post it to that internet thing the humans invented, they'll just take it down and claim it was all a joke!"

"Jumping to conclusions, aren't you?" Globgor asked. "Well congratulations, because they're all correct. That is exactly what's happening. We didn't get any help for the damage from the demon attack and we're not going to get any help for this explosion either. And as for the hospitals from other towns that are taking people in, they're likely only doing so because they have no part in this. Bren didn't get to them. But other than that, we have nothing."

"N-no!" Joseph shouted, all previous thoughts of his protest gone and replaced with fear thanks to this new information. "There has to be something we can do! We can go to other towns and tell them what's happening! Raise a gigantic militia and tell the government that they either have to deal with him or us-"

"They'd much rather deal with us, no matter how many people we raise into a militia," Globgor said. "They know what we're capable of. They know what we can do. We informed them about every special ability that monsters and Mewmans have that set them apart from normal humans, and I'm sure by now they've figured out a way to counter them. But they don't have a way to counter Bren. They can't do anything against Tom's teleportation. Trust me, if we start raising arms and protesting, they'll just shoot nerve gas at us until we go away. They're never going to kneel to us unless Bren dies, not even if we tell the whole dang world what's happening."

"No...no," Joseph said softly, falling to his knees dramatically. "T-they wouldn't do that. They were so supportive of us. So eager to see what Mewni brought with it. They wouldn't just betray us like that! T-they couldn't!"

"Have you researched any part of human history?" Globgor asked. "They could and they would if it meant self-preservation. Heck, almost anyone would. Fear makes people do some pretty crazy things, and Bren's inflicted it upon them in droves."

"No…" Joseph repeated, like the word was some kind of mantra. "So...then we're on our own? No one's coming to save us? Not while Bren is still alive?"

"Correct," Globgor said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have more important things to do than-"

"No! Hold it right there!" Joseph interjected. "We're not done yet! Do you think this changes our view of what we think about you?! You think we're just going to stop because of what you said?!"

"Yes," Globgor replied, wishing he could just go back inside. "I'm not sure how that _isn't_ the end of this. If you take over the town, then Bren will try to kill you, and he will succeed in that regard. You won't get any outside help, most of the knights won't be willing to help you, and again, you have no real leadership or military knowledge. Earthni would become a town-sized kangaroo court, passing judgment and making laws with no real expertise in any of those things."

"I…it doesn't matter!" Joseph shouted. "You Royals still caused this to happen! You still failed your citizens! We're not just going to stop now! We'll find a way! The citizens of Earthni, not you, will find a way to stop Bren and restore order to our town!"

"Who's _we?" _Globgor scoffed.

"Are you blind? All my-" Joseph started to shriek, before he turned around and was met with an empty hill, completely devoid of people. Even Samantha. It was like his fellow protesters hadn't even been there to begin with, and they had all been a figment of his imagination.

"What the-where is everyone?!" He asked to no one in particular. "Where did they all go?! They were right here a second ago!"

"They left." Globgor deadpanned. "Right after I finished my explanation on how Bren has taken over the government. They all looked at each other, exchanged identical glances, and then walked away. Unlike _you, _I think they saw that they had a worse chance of beating Bren than us Royals do, and so they realized that there was no point in taking control if they were all just going to die in the end."

"Tho-those cowards!" Joseph screeched, now so red in the face that it looked like he had slathered himself with paint. "How dare they leave! All that organization! All that preparing! Just for them to call it a day five minutes into our first protest! If I had known that they were like this then I would have-"

"Bye," Globgor said casually, turning around heading towards the door.

"Wha-where are you going?!" Joseph demanded. "Get back here! We're not done!"

"Yes, we are," Globgor said, not even turning around to look at him. "This whole debacle is a waste of my time, as are you. It's clear you had no long term plans for this little protest of yours from the start, not to mention the fact that all your followers backed out at the first sign of trouble. The fact that I stayed here as long as I did to make you all go away is a miracle. Now I'm going to go do something useful, and you can stay out here if you like. But I recommend you go home."

"...You…" Joseph growled, before running towards him with his fists raised. "Don't you turn your back on me you monster piece of filth-"

Anything else Joseph was about to say was quickly cut short when Globgor whipped around and instantly grew to the size of a small house, casting a gigantic shadow over the hill and it's one other occupant. Joseph shrieked in terror and backed up at the sudden change, clearly not expecting Globgor to fight back in any way.

"So _that's _it." The Monster King bellowed. "Monster piece of filth? I should have known. This wasn't just about the Royals. This was also a ploy to get rid of all the monsters in town as well, _wasn't it?!" _He roared, shaking the entire area. "Let me guess. After you took control, you were going to recommend that they start their own community out in the world, weren't you? Get rid of them in a manner that made it look like you cared?"

"I…" Joseph started. "I didn't mean to say that. It's just that I was one of Mina's Solarians and she kinda _made _us all hate them, and then that hate became real, but when the magic went away it was still there!" He explained, still backing away as fast as he could. "I've been trying to get help, but-"

"I don't care," Globgor said. "I don't care if you've been trying to get help. You tried to attack me. You called me a piece of filth because of what I am. You sparked a protest and had every intent to storm the Temple if things didn't go your way. You may have been trying to be peaceful at the beginning, but it's plain to see that you're unhinged. Just like Mina was. And remember what I said earlier, how Bren would kill you if you took the chance to eliminate us Royals away from him?"

Joseph didn't say anything, but nodded, his back finally hitting the gate that was the edge of the property.

"Good. Globgor said. "Because he's already done it. Mina was killed by Bren because he didn't want to share. Because she would have killed the Royals and he didn't want that. Do you really think it's a coincidence that she died just a few days before he appeared? No. Her death was the start of all this, the first sign that showed what was about to happen, and if you keep this up and try to protest at another castle, then you'll share her fate. Does that sound nice to you?"

"..."

"Thought so." He said. And without saying another word, he shrunk down back to normal size, walked back to the Temple, opened the door, went inside, and slammed it shut behind him, leaving Joseph standing there with a stunned expression. A moment later, his face dropped and they walked away as well, having no further plans of any kind of protest and leaving the hill empty and quiet once more.

* * *

And while all _that_ was happening, Eclipsa was here.

Making phone calls to the various Royals, alerting them as to what had happened, as planned. A half-hour later, she had only gotten the Jaggys and the Johansens fully informed, with several more still to go. Every now and then she covered the phone with her hand, screamed into a pillow, and then went back to talking. It helped a little bit, but not as much as she'd like it to. Meteora watched her the whole time, crawling up to her mother and hugging her every time she put the pillow down. That also helped. But even that still wasn't enough. Considering how sleep-deprived she was, and with Globgor unable to comfort her due to him still dealing with the mob outside, she was left to make these calls alone. And now she _really _started to regret telling all the guards to go home. Because while they didn't know her like Globgor did, they still would have been of great help

All of which led back...to this.

"What do you mean he has _green _eyes now?"

"I mean he has green eyes! And he may still be heavily injured! I'm calling you so I can tell you to keep an eye out for him. We don't know what his next move is, and we have all reason to assume that his plan to kill us all has likely changed. Bren is vulnerable right now, but he's also unpredictable. Do you understand that?"

"..."

"..."

"Hello? Are you-"

"I'm sorry...could you repeat all that? I'm still confused about all this."

Eclipsa groaned and flopped herself into a chair (although you already know that), and ran a hand over her face before looking over at her therapy pillow, which had a few stains on the edges where Meteora had chewed on it. The baby was now lying asleep on top of it, which Eclipsa was sure was a ploy by her child to encourage the queen to not use it anymore.

And it was working.

She shook her head and turned back to the phone, preparing herself to explain the situation again. It was King Ponyhead this time, and although she was grateful that none of his daughters, or god forbid, Ponyhead herself were the ones that answered, he still had trouble getting everything through his head. Eclipsa would have seen this as ironic if she was in a better mood, considering that he was _just _a head.

"Bren is heavily wounded." She repeated. "He attacked the Echo Creek hospital, killed two people, and then tried to talk with Star about...something. But River attacked him, then Moon did, injuring him greatly, _then _my husband arrived with a small army of knights, _they _heavily injured him, which caused him to be unpossessed by the Fire-god, the one who's behind this whole mess. He revealed that his unpossessed self is actually worse than his normal self and then fled. As of this moment, we don't know where he is or what he's planning." Eclipsa droned, before finally taking a breath. "Now...do you understand King Ponyhead?"

"...No, I'm still confused about something." The King said, causing Eclipsa to bite her bottom lip bloody. That was a phrase she had heard over ten times in the last hours, and one she'd rather never hear again now that it was burned into her brain. "Why would Bren just want to talk with Star? Doesn't he want to kill her?"

"Yes, but...but…" Eclipsa trailed off. "I don't know. Everything I'm telling you is what Globgor repeated to me, and he didn't get a chance to ask what Bren was doing in that hospital room, or what he wanted to talk about. If you want, you can call Moon or River and ask _them."_

"I don't know their number." King Ponyhead said. "I don't think they even have one. They live out in the middle of the woods, and-"

"Well, then send someone to go ask them!" Eclipsa said angrily. "Just...I have to go." She said, off-put by her outburst. "But just be on the lookout for him. His plans may have changed entirely, so be prepared to take action quickly if anything goes wrong."

"Should my family and I hide in the safe room under the castle?" He asked. "If he detonates another bomb, this time closer to the Cloud Kingdom…"

"You can if you want to," Eclipsa said. "Although I would recommend it. Those bombs mentioned during the meetings, the ones that could be hidden in the buildings according to Janna, they're all there. He may set them off at any moment. So...yes, I do believe seeking shelter may be a good idea until we get further information."

"Wait, _WHA-"_

Eclipsa hung up before she could fully hear what King Ponyhead was about to say and set the phone down on the counter, but not before quickly blocking the number. She wasn't about to explain another situation to him, because the one with the bombs was already nerve-racking. Janna had been right on the money. Every single building had one, and they were estimated to be half as powerful as the one that was set off just yesterday. If Bren blew them all up at the same time…

Well, as Janna put it, "bye-bye Earthni".

So Eclipsa would rather _not _think about that if she didn't have to. The original plan was just to quickly call all the Royals and tell them about the bombs, taking as many citizens into their shelters as possible, but with the riots outside, and the Royals being painfully annoying, the plan had taken a turn.

Because if the Royals were going to force people into those shelters, the citizens would want to know why. And the second they were informed about the bombs that could blow up the entire town, there would be a mass panic. Looting. _More_ riots. People fleeing the town in a hurry. And not mentioning the numerous scores of deaths that'd occur from random people getting trampled under the mob, all this was sure to catch "Bren's" attention. Assuming he was following a similar plan as his predecessor/successor, he wouldn't want everyone leaving the town. Those people were gambling chips after all. The cards on the table. He played with their lives, and in the process, forced Eclipsa and the others to make moves that'd be beneficial for him, or else more innocents would die.

But if the citizens all left, then that'd mean "Bren" would have no more chips. No more cards. And that was something Eclipsa was sure he wouldn't let happen. If people started leaving, "Bren" was likely to blow up a few buildings on the outskirts of town, right next to the roads while everyone was trying to flee. Force them back. Send a message that said "stay or die, it's your choice", which would surely be effective.

And then they'd turn on Eclipsa even _more _for letting this happen, more riots would occur as they learned that no outside help was coming, everything would go to hell, yada yada yada. Same shit as always. Then "Bren'd" be free to do whatever he wished. And if worse came to worst, the knights and everyone else under their command would desert their posts to try and help their families, leaving them with almost no protection. At that point, the only option for the Royalty and any other leaders of the town would be to get inside those shelters to protect themselves. Mob mentality would take over, and Eclipsa and Globgor would become public enemy number two, right after "Bren", for "allowing" all this to happen and not taking any action.

And even if they _did _somehow flee the town, what then? The government didn't want them. They were on "Bren's" side. And it's like they could just go to another country either. Bren would get to them just as he got to the U.S.. As long as he had Tom he could do whatever he wanted. No weapon Earth had could stand up to a teleporter.

They had nowhere to go.

They had to stay in Earthni and finish the fight _here_, because every other option led to uncertainty, which usually led to disaster for all but one party involved.

Eclipsa grit her teeth as all those went through her head and felt an urge to slam her fist into something, before taking another deep breath and calming herself. Her normally dormant and relatively benign temper was getting out of hand quite often nowadays, and the fact that "Bren" had gotten through to her this much was disturbing. She took a moment and quietly banished him from her mind, desperate to focus on anything else.

Meteora suddenly made a loud cooing sound, sensing her mother's distress. Eclipsa sighed happily and scooped Meteora up in her arms, before holding the baby out in front of her. The two stared at each other for a second, Meteora looking at her mother in confusion.

"I'm sorry," Eclipsa said, sounding heartbroken. "If this all goes wrong, if we don't stop "Bren", I'm sorry for failing and I'm sorry for forcing you to grow up in this kind of world. I don't know what to do anymore. I...I'm just so worried. Worried about you, about Globgor, about the citizens and all their lives. If they die, it's on me. I should have seen this coming sooner, I should have…"

Eclipsa then brought Meteora closer and hugged her tightly against her chest, before sitting down in a nearby chair as tears started rolling down her cheek. "Maybe Mina was right." She said. "Maybe I'm not fit to rule. If I hadn't taken the wand from Star that day, if I had just forcefully given it back to her and then gone off with you, maybe things…"

Eclipsa gulped and set Meteora down in the table, where she quickly got on all fours and gazed up at her mother, now wearing an expression of concern like she understood everything.

"...Maybe things could have been better. After all, that's where things started. I became queen, I gave the monsters their homes back and displaced the Mewmans. Mina and everyone else got angry, Moon took their side, the Solarians came back, and...then we destroyed magic." She explained, as if Meteora hadn't heard the tale told to her before bed a hundred times before. "Which, of course, was the _real _start. Bren's home dimension was destroyed, and now he and the Fire-god have come for us. And I...still have no idea how to stop them, Meteora! I...I need help. I need _someone _to just tell me what to do, like my mother! She may have been a ruthless monster slayer, but she always had the best solutions! If she was here, then the problem would already be fixed! But because I...I…"

Eclipsa paused and then glanced back down at Meteora, who was tilting her head at the queen. They locked eyes and continued staring at each other in silence for a moment, before Eclipsa chuckled quietly.

"...What am I doing?" She asked herself. "I shouldn't be dumping all this on you. My mother would never do something like that to me. I shouldn't do the same to you. Oh, Meteora." She took the baby in her arms again and leaned her on her shoulder. "I hope you can forgive me if this world isn't the one I wanted you to grow up in. But I promise, no matter what, that you won't be forced to deal with the same things I did. Maybe...maybe I can't fix Earthni. Maybe Bren will beat us in the end. But I will find a way to save you from this life. From having to fight enemies like this. I...I promise." She whispered.

Eclipsa then smiled at her daughter before turning away and sobbing quietly, her whole world falling apart around her. Meteora didn't do anything but watch, until she crawled up to her mother and began tugging on her sleeve. Eclipsa looked down at the baby, who gazed upwards at her. She then lifted her other arm and pointed it out the window.

Eclipsa sighed. "Meteora, what are you-" She started, before her eyes followed where she was pointing. She stopped speaking mid-syllable, and without taking her eyes off the window she got up and walked over to it, barely even blinking as she focused on the object in the distance.

She then turned back to Meteora, who was smiling to herself.

"How did you…?" She asked, pondering how Meteora had seen this and she hadn't. "When…?"

Eclipsa stopped.

Then she laughed again. In such a situation, a laugh like that might make one assume that she had gone insane. But this was no laugh of insanity. This was a laugh of "I've figured it out". It was loud and seemed to echo across the entire Temple, and when she stopped going full-throttle she continued snickering, as if she was unable to stop.

Then she looked back at the window, towards the outside, towards the town square.

"That's it." She said. "_That's _how we can beat him."

* * *

"Have to teach them a lesson...have to kill them...have to come up with _something…_come on!"

And a furious cry of rage, "Bren" grabbed placed his hands on the end of the table that was in front of him, before sliding them to the right and catching everything on it along the way, resulting in several sheets of papers, dozens of devices identical to the one he lost, and a few parts for bombs that he had been building crashing to the ground. The cacophonous sound echoed along the walls and would have caused any of his demon cronies to come in and see what was happening...if he hadn't ordered them to not bother him under threat of death. They had already tried to help, after seeing the beaten and broken condition he was in, dripping what was left of the blood in his body on the ground, but he waved them off and practically ran into his planning room, wanting to be alone.

Because he was five seconds away from freaking out and losing control again. He could feel his other half trying to take over...the Fire-god whispering in his ear that he was making a mistake...but "Bren" ignored all of this, believing that doing so would somehow solve all his problems. It didn't, of course, but it prevented him from shouting back at the voices and looking crazier than he already was. Which was a gift. Because if any of them found out the truth...that he was no longer who he said he was...and that his powers were gone...then a full-blown mutiny by half of the demons in the castle was the next thing he could expect. Being fast enough to press the remote to talk to the execution so he could signal the end of Tom's parents was the only thing keeping the Lucitor soldiers under his thumb, along with threats of death for their own families, and now that that speed was gone, and he barely had functional thumbs as it was, "Bren" was in a rather tight spot.

"Idiot…" He seethed. "Should have thought this out more. Should have waited a little longer to break free. Should have...have…" He paused and then glanced over at Tom himself, the only other person in the room besides him. Despite his wish to be alone, "Bren" knew that not having him as a bodyguard at the moment was a foolish move, due to the fact that almost any person with the proper skills and a will to fight could take him out at the moment. He wouldn't be surprised if some of the demons he passed on the way here were already plotting how they could use this to their advantage, and for a moment, "Bren" almost considered actually _letting _the Fire-god back in, just so he'd have the proper strength to defend himself in case Tom was made unavailable.

But that was a terrible idea, because if he did that, then the orange-eyed Bren would return and that fiery prick would create countermeasures to ensure that he'd never lose control again. No more of the stunts he pulled back at the hospital. Letting himself get beat on like that, pretending to feel pain even though he never did in the first place, all to make Bren's mind weak enough that he could slip in through the cracks and forcefully take charge. He had been thinking about it for weeks...and could only thank some _other _god that a perfect opportunity presented itself with River, Moon, and the knights conveniently showing up just when he needed them.

He was still humiliated, however. Even with a broken arm, he could have taken most of them down with minimal effort. He could have snapped Moon's neck at any moment, had he used one of those divine speed bursts that allowed him to move from one place to another in a literal blink of an eye. But Bren wasn't in full control at that point, the brown eye being clear evidence of that, and it was so easy for his real half to get inside his brain and fool him into thinking he wasn't as strong as he thought. If the Fire-god had been paying attention, it could have been avoided. But like most gods, it was lazy and barely paid attention to its underlings besides making sure they didn't die and making sure it's influence remained in their bodies, and now it had paid the price.

"Bren" wet his lips as he thought this all over, the swelling from all the numerous kicks and punches enlarging them to almost comical proportions. Despite currently being immortal, "Bren" knew he'd have to fix that soon. The speed burst he had used to get away from Moon and the pathetic posse was the last scrap of divine power he had left in him. And while he may not feel pain, "Bren" knew that his body wouldn't like it if an infection sprung up and he started looking like a decomposing corpse, walking around with bits and pieces falling off him.

'I'll have to use that spellbook. Heal myself.' He thought. 'Of course, I have to kill one of "my" cronies as a sacrifice, so…' He glanced at Tom. "Lucitor!" He said, catching the demon's attention. "Which of the demons under my control is the most useless? Which one can we do without?"

"..."

"Bren" sighed. "You can speak."

"Um…" Tom said, even his mere hum having a respectful and honorable tone, just like he had been ordered to have in the rare cases where he was allowed to speak. But he couldn't hide that one small hint of disdain buried in the back of it, and it was so heavy that it frankly drowned out any other emotions in his voice.

"...Nishum." He said, after some thought. "He's a lowering-ranking demon that was in charge of counting how many soldiers we currently have in the army on a daily basis, as well as other menial military tasks. If we're talking about demons that are expendable and useless, then he's-"

"Get him."

"Get...him?"

"Yes. Go and get him." "Bren" repeated. "But if you try anything stupid, your parents will die. Now shoo."

Tom raised an eyebrow at this, greatly confused as to why "Bren" was just letting him leave like this. While he wasn't in his sights every waking second, Bren never let Tom go off to be by himself. Even if he wasn't keeping watch, he usually had a loyal minion or two keeping an eye on his every move, and reporting back if the prince so much as breathed in a way that was different than the norm. It was embarrassing, humiliating, and a cavalcade of other words that ended in "ing". But after a while Tom had mostly gotten used to it, the only thing pushing him on being the knowledge that Bren would likely be stopped, and he'd get his sweet revenge for everything he had been put through. Those kinds of thoughts had, again, been the only thing keeping him going all this time, and so far it had been extremely effective.

But back in the present, Tom froze up at "Bren's" order, still clueless as to why his eyes were green or why he seemed more stressed out than usual. But an order was an order, and Tom had learned to never question one, no matter how weird or screwed up it was. Every member of his family had either been executed or had fled because of his disobedience, except for his parents and his grandfather Relicor (who vanished out of thin air one day, surprising even Bren), and he couldn't bear to lose anyone else. His parents were the only gambling cards Bren had left, but they were also the most important.

"Okay…" He said. "I'll just...be on my way then." And with that, Tom backed out of the room, leaving "Bren" by himself. However, the second the Lucitor was out of earshot, he bolted like a mad rabbit. Bren said he had to go get Nishum, but there was no way in hell that that was the _first _thing he was going to do.

"Bren" was completely oblivious to all of this, however, lacking the ability to stay calm, the planning skills, and the foresight of his predecessor/successor. He hadn't even heard Tom leave, much less run away. He honestly couldn't care much about the demon right now except for how long he was going to take to bring back whoever this Nishum was, his arrogance now rocketed to superhuman levels.

"Think…" He said. "How do I keep this going? I have to kill them. I have to find some way to kill them now. That stupid Fire-god...blocking off my memories!" He scoffed, talking in the same manner a lunatic trapped in an insane asylum would. "Not letting me see the plans we had made beforehand...trying to sabotage everything...you're not helping yourself! You're not helping yourself, you know that?!" He screamed at the ceiling, his voice echoing throughout the halls.

"**And **_**you're **_**breaking the rules." **A sudden thundering voice said, making it feel like the entire castle was on a fault line that just shifted. "Bren" shook and shivered under the voice, knowing immediately who this was. He didn't respond out of shock, _wanting _a response but never actually expecting to get one. If the Fire-god was contacting him directly like this, then they had to be nothing short of _pissed._

"**You disappoint me, Bren." **He said. "**You disappoint me. Your convincing of your better half that you were unable to defeat the false Butterfly matriarch at the hospital, your overtaking and theft of this body, and your forceful removal of my influence. This is going against everything you promised me at the beginning."**

"Bren" took a deep breath, wondering if he should just ignore this or say something back. The Fire-god couldn't hurt him directly, or _wouldn't, _as it still needed him alive in some shape or form, but that didn't mean "Bren" didn't fear it. He was still a member of the divine after all, and could come up with thousands of ways to torture Bren without actually causing physical pain. And he was in no mood to find out the sort of things that he could cook up.

So he figured that he better say something. Something to ease the situation, like...putting on the same innocent act back he did back at the hospital. See where that got him.

"No." "Bren" said. "Not anymore. You've made me do things that I never agreed to. Blowing up ten percent of the town like that was something I didn't want to do. Why do you think _your _half's eyes turned green back at the mansion? It wasn't because of _Brudo._" He said with disdain. "It was because I was trying to convince him to not do that."

"**Do you take me for a fool?" **The Fire-god asked. "**You'd have done something a hundred times worse if I had let you take control. "My" half is a saint compared to what you've done, back in your home dimension. All those people...all those innocents...your family among them...the people of Earthni remind you of them, don't they? And I can tell you're exhilarated to have another chance at killing like that again."**

"You know _nothing." _"Bren" hissed. "Nothing about what I have planned. I might have been like that in the past...but your possession changed me. Altered my mind. I'm not the same murderous, psychotic monster that you met way back when. I'm better now. I'm not the same. _Haven't _been for a long time."

"**Another lie." **The Fire-god sighed. "**Another future attempt of yours to try and get me to believe you. What are you hoping to accomplish? I'm better now? I've changed? Ridiculous. You are what you will always be, Wi-"**

"Don't you fucking _dare _use that name!" "Bren" snapped, slamming his fists down on the table. "Don't you...don't you dare. I don't use that name anymore. I haven't got a long time, and I don't intend to now."

"**Really? But it is your true name. The name of the person you currently are." **The Fire-god pointed out. "**Does it bother you?"**

"You know it does. Don't be coy." "Bren" growled. "That name carries no meaning for me anymore. No worth. I truly stopped being that person when I murdered my parents and siblings. They were the last person to ever call me by that, and I'm sure as hell going to keep them that way."

"**And how exactly do you intend to do that? I could say it a thousand times over, and you wouldn't be able to stop me."**

"If you want me to continue going after Butterfly...to complete _any _aspect of your mission...then you will call me what I want to be called." "Bren" growled.

"**...And what do you want to be called?"**

"...What do you think?" "Bren" asked rhetorically. "Bren! What else?! And if you obey this wish, then I'll keep killing some people that I think deserve it. That I think need to die. Simple as that."

"**So in exchange for me referring to you with this specific denomination…" **The Fire-god started. "**...You will complete my mission and finish what your possessed self started?"**

"Wha-no!" "Bren" screeched. "I'm not completing your mission! I'm...well...I _suppose _I'm doing _some _parts of it. But sure as hell not for you! I'm doing this for me! For what Butterfly did to my dimension, without your help! Without your powers! Once Tom gets backs here with Niceham or whoever-"

"**Nishum."**

"...Yeah, that guy, whatever." Bren grumbled. "Once Tom gets back here with _Nishum_ I'm gonna sacrifice him to you to heal my injuries, and then I'm using that _other _spell to cut all my ties to you! You'll never get in my head again!"

"**Idiot. You idiot, idiot boy." **The Fire-god said, sounding extremely disappointed in him. "**I control Demon Magic. I control the spells. I **_**created**_ **it. And if I control the spells, I also control who uses them. Every sacrifice made is made to me. The blood, the objects, the living beings, I consume them all and in exchange grant whatever the spell caster wishes. But I can reject those sacrifices if I so wish, and render the spell useless. Namely...yours."**

"You won't." "Bren" said. "You need me alive if you want _any _hope in completing your little mission. And the spell that cuts all ties with you is special you know. I don't need any kind of sacrifice. I don't need your permission. All I have to do is say the words and boom, you're out of my head. And then without your magic to keep me alive, I'll drop dead on the spot from these wounds. You really wanna see that happen? You wanna lose your only pawn?"

"**..."**

"Didn't think so." "Bren" said. "So don't try and stop me. I'm on my own now. I'm getting my revenge on Butterfly, I'm doing it my own way without your help, and there is not a damn thing you can do to change my mind. Capiche?"

"**...No."**

"What?"

"**I said no." **The Fire-god repeated. "**This is not a discussion. This is not up for debate. I have entertained your little attempts at negotiation for too long. Did you think you could block me out? Did you really think I would allow this to happen? I could wipe this all out in a few seconds you know. All of Earthni, burned to a crisp."**

"Then why don't you?"

"**Because **_**that is not my mission**_**. I do not intend to kill all life on Earthni. Just the ones who have wronged me the most."**

"Then _why_ didn't you let Marco stay dead?" "Bren" asked. "You brought him back to life after you had a nice and pleasant conversation with him, I'm guessing!"

"**It was anything but "nice and pleasant". **The Fire-god muttered. "**But I only did that to take other players out of this game and allow me more space to make my own moves. With Marco currently being the depressed, traumatized, sniveling mess of a person he is, he is unable to help us, along with his parents. They will be focused on taking care of him and not interfering. This takes all three of them off the playing field."**

"I still think it'd have worked better if you let him die."

"Bren" said. "Star would be a withering and angry mess, his parents would still be useless because they'd be too busy mourning, and everyone else like Eclipsa, Moon, Globgor, whatever, would focus on funeral preparations and give me time to screw things up further."

"**No. They would not mourn first. Their initial reaction would be anger. Towards you." **The Fire-god said. "**When Star first found out that Marco had died, she threw up and passed out. But when she woke up, she had to be dragged away from the hospital door kicking and screaming to prevent her from going over to our Sanctuary and demolishing it." **He paused and made a "tch" sound. "**And by the way, you better make sure that place is-"**

"Kept unharmed, yes whatever." "Bren" said, rolling his eyes. "But no. I know these people. Better than you. Sure, they'll be angry and want to kill me. And _sure, _a few of them will try to do that before any sort of mourning. But out of _everyone..._only Star did that when they found out. I'm betting Janna and Eclipsa didn't freak out and started screaming with rage. Same with Angie. None of them reacted with anger at first, only shock and sadness, right?! Star's a loose cannon, and Marco's her boyfriend, but that's the only reason she got angry first. Because she turns into a crazy person whenever things don't go her way!" He took a deep breath and sighed. "Just because _you _have had a bad experience with some people in the past doesn't mean everyone's like them."

"**Do not mentor me on how people work." **The Fire-god growled. "**You don't get to. Not after what you've done. You slit your own mother's throat, and unlike the rest of your family, made sure she stayed alive for a little while afterwards because she **_**didn't use the name you wanted**_**. Because she kept calling you by your birth name. If you had any sense of morality, then you'd understand why that was an incredibly shitty and petty thing to do."**

"Bren's" eyes narrowed. "You-"

"**NO." **The Fire-god interjected. "**Do not try and place blame for me on that little incident. I never told you to kill them and you know it. No matter what you told them back at the hospital parking lot, you can't hide the truth from yourself."**

"Keep repeating a lie, and eventually the person telling it will believe it themselves." "Bren" said. "Wouldn't it be better if I think you made me do it? So you can free me from that pain? The knowledge that I killed my own family for petty reasons?"

"**...You're insane." **

"Yeah. Maybe I am." "Bren" agreed. "But what are you, huh? You said it yourself. You could wipe out Butterfly at any moment. You could wipe out the entire damn Earth! Every Mewman, Monster, and human gone with a literal snap of your fingers! But no!" He shrieked. "You want it to last because you're _bored. _But that's not it, is it? You're doing this because you like watching them suffer. You enjoy having your cronies fuck around with these people's lives. That's borderline sadism, and if that doesn't make you insane then I don't know what does."

"**...Gods, your knowledge about the definition of insanity is clearly lacking." **The Fire-god replied. "**But this is hardly important. We should-"**

"Yes, of course, our little argument. Or arguments." "Bren" reworded. "Because we have quite a few going on at once. So why don't we solve the most recent one. I don't care what you say. I don't care what your opinion is on what went down that night. But I know that it wasn't my influence alone that drove me to murder my family. There was someone else there too. And it had to be you. The way I felt when I killed them...I got the same rush the first time you entered my mind. The first time you spoke to me. That's proof enough in my eyes. What else could that rush have been, if not you?"

"**Euphoria, because you were and are a sociopathic narcissistic who enjoys killing things for the heck of it." **The Fire-god claimed. "**You have deluded yourself into believing a false reality. You feel the smallest amount of guilt for murdering your family like that, and thus you blame it on me so you can justify your actions."**

"Guilt?!" "Bren" scoffed. "I feel no guilt. I don't regret what I did. When they died, I didn't care. Their deaths meant nothing for me except getting rid of the people who held me back, the _problems _in my life. They didn't accept me, and that's just the plain truth."

"**Wrong. **_**You **_**didn't accept **_**them." **_The Fire-god said. "**Your parents loved you. Your siblings loved you. And what did you do with that love? You turned it into a knife and stained the walls with it. And in their final moments, I'm betting that they realized their mistake. And that their love for you drained out with their blood."**

"Bren" sucked a breath in, unable to come up with a proper response. "You...you can't…"

"**But there's more." **The Fire-god continued. "**I told you that you used me as a way to justify slitting their throats. But why is that I wonder? You claim you feel no guilt. That their deaths didn't affect you. But if that was true in any way, you'd take responsibility for it and blame me. So I think I understand. You're **_**sad. **_**You **_**miss **_**them. You miss all of them. And now they're gone, you're partially to blame, and the only thing left in your life now is this revenge-plot that I set up for you, simply because I don't want my flame to die out."**

"What are you-"

"**You think I give a shit about Butterfly?" **He asked rhetorically. "**You think I care that all of you died because the realm of magic was destroyed? That your dimension crumbled to pieces and ceased to exist? I don't. I truly don't. Even if your home was the last of the parallels, the last of the sister dimensions, it didn't matter in the slightest. There are a billion more just like it out there that I could access, and effectively make yours worthless in the long run."**

"Stop...stop it you-"

"**You assume I want to kill them all." **The Fire-god sighed. "**You assume I hate them because they destroyed magic. But again, I don't. When I first met you, I was going to tell you the truth. But then you assumed that I wanted to kill them because I hated them. I realized that if I went along with it, you'd be more eager to agree. So I did. I've been going along with this lie, even in the past ten minutes, but now I see…" **He huffed. "**...that it is no longer necessary."**

"Then...then what is the truth?!" "Bren" screeched. "Why do you care about Earthni? You told Marco it was because you wanted to see what would happen! You told me it was because you hated them! So what is it really?"

The Fire-god spoke up almost instantaneously, sounding like it was grinning from ear to ear. "**Simple. I've been looking for a new successor." **It said. "**Someone to carry on my legacy, and I chose this planet as the next dimension that would do is."**

"Successor?"

"**Yes. Like you were." **The Fire-god confirmed. "**You see Bren, there are many rules to the divine. We cannot bear children of our own, due to the whole...Zenrod incident, we cannot interfere in the matters of other gods, we cannot steal powers from other gods, although I myself am slightly guilty of that...in order to resurrect Marco…" **It admitted sheepishly. "**But then there is another rule. You see, by definition, gods can't die. And this is mostly true. Gods cannot die of aging, or disease, or natural causes, or anything of the sort. We are immune to every single power that a mortal being could get their hands on. Even if the smartest person in the universe created a device specifically to kill gods, it wouldn't work. Because the mortals are not allowed to stand against the **_**truly **_**divine. They have to know their place."**

"Get to the fucking point!" "Bren" cursed.

"**Fine." **The Fire-god sighed. "**The **_**point **_**is that while gods are extremely hard to kill, there are a few ways that I know we can die. Being destroyed by other, more powerful and ancient gods, being erased by the creator, but the most common way for a god to perish is by TLOF. Total Loss Of Faith." **It stated. "**This is when they have no more followers, no mortals that believe in them, no one that cares if they exist or not. The god will cease to exist without the spark that keeps them lit, which is why all gods make sure to have at least a few followers. Because without faith...what is a god? If you don't believe...what power do we have? We have nothing. Which is why I'm interested in Earthni."**

"Bren's" eyes widened as he finally understood. "You're going to...to…"

"**Yes. Just like your dimension was my last "home", the primary place where I created followers that worshiped me, Earthni will be the next. Obviously, not the **_**entire **_**planet, as there is too much competition from...other gods, but just Earthni for now. I will spread my influence, make people believe in me, and when this planet dies in...I don't know, a couple thousand years? Something like that?" **It guessed. "**Anyways, I'll just move on to the next. I've been doing that for billions of years, and I plan to do it for billions more."**

"Then...who…"

"**Will be my primary successor? I'm not exactly sure. I thought about the Lucitor boy...but he is a denizen of the Underworld, not Mewni. And to be frank, I'm done with this Underworld. People are always talking about how "He created the Underworld", or "He created Demon Magic"! It's obnoxious. Yes, both of those things are true, but they are minor achievements, at best. I created them because I was bored. Because I wanted my **_**own **_**type of magic and thought it would be fun to see what the mortals did with it. Contrary to what all those books say, all those rumors, Demon Magic...does not have a big impact on my life."**

"You didn't answer my-"

"**Ah yes, the successor. Well, the answer is simple. I'm not sure. I have a few options in mind. Marco was one of them. As I'm sure you've guessed, any reason I brought him back that I told him is a load of crap. That little possession thing was a bit of a test I ran, to see if he was worthy of becoming the next in line. But he was not, as he was unable to defeat you in that arena. Hell, he didn't even last five seconds. It was sad. I had such high hopes for him after hearing about his adventures in the Neverzone, but he...turned out to be a giant disappointment."**

"Is that just everything to you?" "Bren" scoffed. "A disappointment? Something not even worth taking a second glance towards?"

"**You're not far off the mark, and I can say that **_**you **_**are certainly on that list now." **The Fire-god said. "**But anyways, when Marco failed, I gave up on him. Used him a little bit later on, gave him one nasty nosebleed, but...I will have no further association with him. And honestly, he can tell anybody about me and what I told him during the meeting, I don't care. The more people that know, the more people that become potential followers. Just works out in my favor."**

"...Then why did you even tell him not to-"

"**Because I didn't need them knowing **_**yet." **_The Fire-god replied. "**I have planned everything out so that it works in my favor, and them not knowing I exist until the proper moment was part of that plan." **It sighed. "**Whatever. Back to successor. Marco was a waste, but I still have a few options. People that have impressed me, people that I have taken a liking too. Moon is one, due to her fighting spirit. When she started pummeling you like that in the parking lot, I almost showed up and asked her to be your replacement right then and there."**

"She would have refused and told you to piss off." "Bren" said bluntly.

"**Probably. But not after I told her I wouldn't take no for an answer and then go off to kill Star if she didn't agree." **The Fire-god mumbled. "**However, Moon cannot do it. She is too shut-in. Even after this incident, she will continue to ignore people the same way she did before. Heck, if not more so, since she will likely be ashamed at not being able to catch you."**

"Poor pitiful her." "Bren" said, entirely without emotion. "Moon is worthless anyway. I mean what has she done for Earthni lately? _I've _done more good for Earthni than she has! She's just sat in her house all day and done squat! That little incident this afternoon was possibly the _only _time she actually got off her ass and went somewhere because she wanted to, not needed too! And I saw it in her eyes." He seethed. "The way she looked at me. She had some all-mighty "duty". Some drive to kill me, like she _deserved _to after everything I did. Like my death was engineered especially for her. Bullshit! She is easily the most deluded person I have ever met, and the events before today perfectly entail that!"

"**...Since when did you develop such a hatred for Moon?" **The Fire-god asked. "**I've heard your real self talk about Star in better ways."**

"Maybe it's because I'm still pissed that you screwed me over, and want to take it out on someone!" "Bren" shrieked. "I feel like you of all people would understand that…"

"**I didn't screw you over. You screwed yourself over when you accepted my deal all those months ago." **The Fire-god said blankly. "**I'm the equivalent of the devil in hundreds of dimensions. You honestly should have seen this coming."**

"Sure...and now you want to find _another _lackey so you ruin their life as well." "Bren" said. "Alright. Keep going with that. Who's gonna be next? Who are you going to trick and possess next?"

"**Ah, but that is where you are wrong."** The Fire-god said. "**You see, I learned a lesson with Marco. And it is that unnecessary possession is a bad idea. He was too strong. His mind was able to resist me for too long, and it could not take the strain. Now he is this...little mess of a person, and I almost feel bad for him because of it."**

"How nice of you." "Bren" scoffed. "But what does that make me? If that's the truth, then why didn't you stop possessing me after you tossed Marco away like trash?"

"**Because your possession **_**was **_**necessary." **The Fire-god sighed. "**I mean, just look at you. You're this writhing angry thing without my help. A veritable psychopath who needs assistance even coming up with the simplest of plans. When Bren kills people, he comes up with intricate ones to do it. Trapping them, tricking him into fighting them, or outwitting them. But when you kill people, you slit their throats in the night, stab them from behind when no ones looking, and rarely, if ever, face an opponent head-on. No, you are more content to run."**

"Are you criticizing me for running away back at the hospital?" "Bren" hissed. "Well, what the hell would you have done? There was no way I could fight any of them off, and-"

"**I'm not talking about that." **The Fire-god groaned. "**I'm talking about overall. You are not a fighter. You don't know how to fight. You're the kind of person who aims for someone's jaw rather than their throat. There should be no "retreats" when it comes to Bren. If your better self was there, in that parking lot, he would not have run away. He would have fought until-"**

"You're an idiot." "Bren" said. "He _totally _would have run away. You keep calling that despicable piece of trash my "better self". Well, if he's better than me, then he should be smarter as well. And if he's smarter, then he'd know that it's not a good idea to take on over four dozen knights at the same time that all our legs and arms are smashed to pieces!"

"**Fool!" **The Fire-god brayed. "**Fool! Fool! He could have easily killed them all! But just like you admitted, you snuck in and made him think that he wasn't as strong as he actually was, subconsciously forcing him to hold back, and making him lose against Moon. **_**Moon. **_**And now look how you ended up. Broken, bloodied, and wasting time putting notes on people's kitchen counters like Eclipsa. Telling her that you're "new in town" and that she should prepare for something worse than the explosion. It was extremely childish."**

"Says the guy who plans to make everyone worship him!"

"**That's hardly a similar-"**

"I don't care!" "Bren" screeched. "The point is that _you_ don't get to insult the way I do things! You brought Marco back to life and possessed him only to drop him later! That served no purpose whatsoever other than converting him into a fragile and pathetic person. Admittedly, very amusing to watch, but still! That was _your _mess, and someone of your stature should have at least cleaned it up rather than left my "better" half…" He spat. "...to kill him so you didn't have to fix that problem. Why you didn't just abandon him after the beach dream is beyond me, but clearly you didn't think it all through."

The Fire-god sighed. "**Okay, you know what? We're getting nowhere with this. I've had enough. So this is what's going to happen. Submit. Right now. Give up your control and let me back in, and I will heal your wounds and not punish you because of it. That is your first and only offer. Make it so that I don't have to find a successor for a little while longer, and maybe I'll be merciful when this is all over."**

"Screw that." "Bren" fumed. "That's a shitty offer. If I do that, you'll never let me out again. I'll be stuck in this body forever, only able to observe but _unable _to do anything about it or offer suggestions."

"**Your suggestions would be worthless compared to his ideas and you know it." **The Fire-god said. "**Look around you. Look at the plans on the walls. Look at the charts and graphs and photographs and documents. Do you have any idea what they mean? Do you have the faintest clue as to how important they are?"**

"Um...well…" "Bren" started, before glancing around the room. Surrounding him were hundreds if not thousands of pieces of paper, all of them neatly plastered to the wall or stacked three feet high. "That one is just a simple map of the town, and-"

"**Wrong. "That one" is a map of where the best places to place bombs and cause the most casualties are. The thumbtacks are where our current bombs are planted, although I suspect they won't be there for much longer. I believe Globgor had discovered them and they are currently trying to find out a way to either disarm or move them. Not good, and also something your better half would have taken care of."**

"Bren" snapped you and his eyes narrowed. "Then why don't I just blow it all up right now?!" He said, before narrowing his eyes. "In fact...that's a fantastic idea. You want Earthni to survive. All your successors are in this town. And judging by how many bombs my "better" half planted…" He glanced over at the map and took note of how many thumbtacks there were. "...I think setting them all off at the same time will kill each and every last person in Earthni. Seems fitting after all that bullshit you were talking about, huh?"

The Fire-god scoffed. "**Fine. Go ahead. Blow it up." **He taunted. "**I'll just find another dimension or city to use. And if you try to destroy that one, another. Despite what you think, destroying this dimension or even the entire planet won't stop me. I can move to another whenever I want. I'm only at this one because it was closest. But the second closest...is a walk in the park to get to."**

"Fool." "Bren" said, throwing his own insult back at him. "I don't think you understand. Everyone that knows you exist is in Earthni. I know the formula. You only present yourself to a single dimension and then prevent everyone from leaving that dimension so they can't go screaming to another god to save themselves from you or your worshippers, if things go bad. Therefore, everyone that believed in you is dead. My predecessor likely came to my dimension hundreds of thousands of years ago, and spread the news. Then people got all excited and started worshipping you. However…" He stuck a finger in the air, which then flopped over with a soft cracking sound. "...Everyone _there_ is dead. I am the only one left. The only ones who believe in you are a special few within Earthni. If I blow it up, then every mortal who knows you exist dies, after I kill myself. You'll die with me, and I will have won. I'll have beaten you for ruining-"

"**Okay, that's enough of that." **The Fire-god interjected. "**A few things. First off, your plan is full of holes. The government knows about me, so you'll have to take them out as well. There are also several sects in other dimensions that believe in me, having heard of my existence through other gods who I have no control over. I'm only making this the **_**primary**_ **one, as already mentioned. And...you won't die unless I permit it. You can't kill yourself to kill me. That spell to get rid of me won't work unless I allow it. Have you forgotten that already?"**

"...I...um…"

The Fire-god sighed again, something that had practically become a habit. "**Of course you did. Also, unlike the last bombs, these have to be remotely activated, and the only way to do that is with a retinal scan. And I can assure you that when you switch back and forth between your better half, that more than just your **_**eye color **_**changes! It won't work, and neither will most of the other toys Bren had whipped up. Did you really think we didn't see this happening as a possibility?"**

"But I thought that-"

"**The answer is no then." **The Fire-god muttered. "**Very well. I think it is time to put an end to this ludicrous conversation. You have threatened me, insulted me, and cursed at me with mumbles under your breath that you thought I couldn't hear. But I heard it. I heard and saw it all. So I'm going to make you that offer one last time. Take it, or I'll temporarily possess one of your guards and **_**force **_**you too. You have no power after all. You're not strong anymore. You're not fast. You're not anything. So...agree."**

"Never!" "Bren" screeched. "If you think I-"

"**Fine. Screw you then. I'll be sending someone after you shortly with the ritual to help put me back in place so we can get things back on track. I would suggest that you not resist so we can make this easier for everyone, but if you do then that's your choice. I can either repossess you by force, or of your own consent. Those are your options."**

"N-no!" "Bren" protested. "Don't, or I'll…" He looked around frantically and then grabbed a nearby remote, his finger hovering over the button. "...Or I'll order for Tom's parents to be...executed? Make you...lose his respect...or something..." He said with uncertainty.

"**...Wow. **_**Really?" **_The Fire-god asked rhetorically. "**That. **_**That**_ **is your gamble? Using Tom's parents against me because I'll **_**lose his trust? **_**This is so pathetic it defies comprehension. Also, that remote is voice-activated. The button is just the switch for the real key, and it can tell if you're possessed or not. Just pointing that out, because apparently you didn't think that part through either, right?"**

"You-"

"**On second thought, I don't care."** The Fire-god said. "**Goodbye. You were a real pain in the ass. I hope that wherever you find yourself after this is all over, it's better than the life you were in when I found you. Although I suppose you should know this."**

And with that, he vanished, leaving "Bren" standing alone. Nervous, jittery, and ready to scream in rage. He attempted to crush the remote he was holding in his hands but failed, even after slamming it against the table several times. Eventually, he just chucked it across the room at a nearby wall, sending it clattering to the floor.

'Think.' He thought. 'He's sending someone after me now. There's no way I could take even a _normal _person in the condition I'm in. There has to be a way for me to defend myself. A way for me to-"

He suddenly looked back at the fallen remote, lying vacant.

'_Lucitor.' _He seethed. He hopped over to the device and stuffed it in his pocket, and then headed for the door. 'I have to find him. Wherever he is. Make him get me out of here. He believes the remote doesn't have to be voice-activated, and that's good enough. We have to leave before fuckface fully manages to possess someone and send them after me. We can get out of here, and I'll set those damn bombs off remotely! Then I'll kill everyone in the government, kill Lucitor, kill myself, and erase him from existence! And he was obviously bluffing about the people from other dimensions believing him in. If that was the case, he wouldn't need to come here at all! He's…' "Bren" paused and grasped his hair. 'He's going down. He's going to die for what he did to me. My last act...shall be victory.'

And with that all settled, "Bren" hobbled off to carry out his idiotic and hastily-thought up plan, his insanity convincing him that it was the best idea in the world.

* * *

Tom bolted.

The second he had the chance, he ran away from the room "Bren" was in as fast as he could, dead-set on getting the hell away from him as quickly as possible. And while he had a perfect moment to blast him with some fireback there, especially considering all his remotes were lying half-broken in the floor, the demon prince wasn't even sure it'd have done anything. If "Bren's" was anything to go by, Tom figured that it was quite possible his "master" couldn't even die at the moment. Because if losing every single drop of blood in his body and getting his skull caved in ten different positions didn't kill them, then he didn't know what did.

So he ran. But he wasn't running toward his parents. Unfortunately, the demons who were guarding them were dead loyal to Bren and would likely take him down if they all worked together, given that there were over _twenty_ of them. But his parents could wait, as Tom has a feeling that they wouldn't be prisoners much longer, if "Bren's" sudden insanity was anything to go by. He was very clearly losing control of the situation and himself because of the whole green eyes thing, and soon enough everything would fall apart. All Tom had to do was change a few things so that it all worked out _against _"Bren's" favor.

First up, destroying all escape routes to the castle. Being of his Royal blood, he was the only demon there that could teleport, and therefore if he destroyed all the exits then _nobody_ could get out except him. "Bren" would not make Tom teleport all his lackeys out one by one. He was clearly irrational and unstable at the moment and trying to make too many decisions at a time. If the exits were suddenly destroyed, then he'd assume that someone was attacking them, and not suspect internal sabotage. After all, Bren had frequently said that Tom was too stupid to try anything like this, and after so long, the prince suspected that he truly believed that. Even if it had obviously been him, Tom was beyond suspicion.

The first exit was the front gate, guarded by two demons that were loyal like the twenty guarding his parents. "Bren" has made sure that every demon guarding something important was a loyal follower, ensuring that none of them would help somebody try to escape. Unfortunately, he'd have to kill them without using his pyrokinesis, because if he did then someone was bound to smell the smoke. (Despite everything being on fire, the Underworld had recently installed devices in every room that dispersed the constant smoke smell, at Bren's request. It was shockingly effective.)Then he'd have to kill them, another person would notice, and eventually, too many people would gang up on him and that would be the end of it. Beyond suspicion to not, Bren wouldn't buy that he was trying to do anything to help him by killing a couple of guards. And then that'd be the end of his parents. Or at least one of them. Bren would probably make him choose.

But Tom didn't care about any of that, because he didn't intend to let it happen. It was just two demons after all. Rather lower-ranked as well. And while his entire body still aches from being thrown into that wall earlier, along with the fact that he was sure he had a concussion, courtesy of Moon, Tom was positive that he could take them both out without them sounding any kind of alarm. Taking them _both_ on with his bare hands wasn't the best idea, so…

He stopped and looked around for anything sharp, something he could eliminate the first one with, and while the other was still contemplating what the heck just happened to his partner, Tom would swoop in and snap his neck.

There. Perfect plan. Then he would hide the bodies, destroy the mechanism that allowed the gate to open, do the same thing with the _rest _of the gates, find Nishum, take him to Bren, and that would be the end of it.

He eventually settled on grabbing a nearby vase and snapping a piece off, the edges of it jagged and perfect for murder. He'd have to throw it like one of those shuriken things that in one of those crappy movies that Marco had shown him.

(The acting was nothing short of horrendous, and you could see cameramen at several points in the background, trying and failing to be inconspicuous.)

Tom then headed her to the front gate and behind the nearby wall when he heard someone talking in front of it, evidently the two guards. He peeked around the corner and spotted them, both of them shifting in place and looking bored.

'There's a small opening on one of their necks.' He thought, after scanning their armor for any holes. 'I can throw the piece of the vase in there and then kill the other one before he can react. Then I should be able to hide the bodies in the storage closet I passed on the way here.'

Tom then tightened his grip around the vase shard and prepared to throw it, but before he could one of the guards spoke up, and he quickly shirked out of view just in case they had noticed him.

"So what do you think is wrong with the boss?" He asked.

"Who? Bren?" The other said.

"No, the president of fucking Switzerland." The first one sighed. "Yes, of course I'm talking about Bren. Who else is our "boss"?"

"Oh. I thought-"

"No, it doesn't matter. Just...what do you think is wrong with him?"

"You mean why is he so beat up and looking like he was just shoved through a meat grinder?" The second one asked. "Yeah, I don't know. But he seemed pretty pissed. Guess someone tossed him around a bit on the surface."

"You _guess? _What the hell else would have done that to him, if not someone beating him up?" The first one scoffed.

"I...I don't know. I'm considering options here. I think it was Butterfly personally. I know the boss can take almost anyone on, but I've seen what Butterfly is capable of. I've seen the footage and heard stories of her when Mewni wasn't merged. And...she seems to be one hell of a fighter."

"Yeah, _when Mewni wasn't merged." _The first one pointed out, whose actual name was Screwtape. "But now, she has no magic, and she's just a normal dumb girl that anybody with something as simple as a _rock _could kill by hitting her in the head with it."

"I mean...we still have our demon strength, and that's because of magic."

"_Demon Magic_," Screwtape said. "It's in the name. It's not that complex you know."

Tom wet his lip and then drew his arm back, preparing to throw. As utterly fascinating as the conversation between the two worst guards the Lucitors has to offer was, time was still of the essence. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the vase shard flying toward the neck of Screwtape, who was now babbling about how productivity in the Underworld has gone up since Bren arrived.

"I don't know." His partner replied, looking away from him. "I mean, you're right, we're getting a lot more work done, but that's only because of fear. I already lost a brother to this guy. Heck, _everyone _in the Underworld has lost a family member! Remember the first night, where he snuck around and slit the throats of one member of each major demon family? Did you lose anyone?"

"..."

"What, did I not say it loud-" The second one said, before turning back to his partner and stopping short. Screwtape was frozen in place, the shard implanted deep into his neck, with several choking and gurgling noises coming out of his mouth. A second later he fell over and flopped to the ground face first, resulting in the shard being slammed into the floor and forced deeper into his throat. His partner stared in silent shock for a moment, before he heard what sounded like a person sprinting full-speed at towards him and turned.

Tom hadn't wasted a second. Before the broken vase piece had even reached his intended target, he took off and ran at the second guard with everything he had, eager to get to him before he had a chance to react. And just as planned, he was too in shock at the death of his fellow guard to put up any form of resistance, and the prince had no trouble grabbing the sides of his head and twisting it to the side as hard as he could. A terrific crack echoed across the room as the body slumped over, eyes glazed over and head twisted around like an owl.

As the body fell limp, Tom slowly lowered him to the floor before turning to the gate mechanism. He ripped it out of the wall with zero effort and crushed it beyond repair between his hands. He then glanced back at the gate, now forever locked. Tom grabbed the two bodies and slung them over his shoulder, albeit with some difficulty. A few small drops of blood were coming out Screwtape's neck, but there was really nothing he could do about that. Besides, if anyone saw it, they'd just assume it was Bren punishing a disloyal servant and not even bother to ask. That was possibly the only advantage to him taking over. Any demon could kill another around here, say Bren did it, and no one would question it. Especially the guards. Because of him, the castle had been rather...running low on those as of late.

Tom reached the closet and tossed the two bodies inside, taking the shard out of Screwtape's throat to use later. He then quietly shut the door and sighed, not sure if he should be feeling regret or relief at their deaths.

"One down, five to go." He whispered. And without saying another word, he took off towards the second gate. Unfortunately, this one would not be as easy. It was located in the dungeons, and while Bren didn't take any prisoners, but simply killed them, all the _old _prisoners were likely still down there, just locked away and abandoned with no warning. Of course, it would have been months since they were fed, but Tom had been around enough to know that some demons could easily last months without food. Sure, they'd go insane from hunger, but they would survive.

And so he _really _hoped that all of them were dead.

But in no time at all, he was there. Standing in front of the dungeon doors. There were no guards, thankfully, since no one went down there anymore, but there was still a giant steel door as high as the ceiling in the way. His demon strength would be useless against that, and he'd have a hoard of guards descending on him long before his fireballs melted through it. Tom cursed under his breath and looked around for another solution, his eyes eventually settling on the smoke filtration device, attached to the wall next to the door.

'There.' He thought. 'It's right next to the door. If I can get up there, I can break into the vent behind it and then smash through the wall that leads into the dungeon. Just go around the whole thing instead of through it. Can't fly using my fire, unfortunately...but it's better than anything else I can think of.'

Tom took a deep breath and gripped the wall with his hands, before starting his climb up it towards the vent, the various mismatched stones jutting out making it as easy as going up a ladder. He was at the filtration device in less than a minute, and he carefully and quietly took it off the wall, knowing that he couldn't just destroy it and hoped nobody would notice the noise. Tom just rested it on one of the rocks he had just grabbed onto, praying that it would balance himself. Behind the device was what looked like a miniature cave, dark and cramped and probably filled with all sorts of bugs and creatures. It was also a way to the outside, and Tom thought about it for a moment. Maybe if he was fast enough, he could leave, get to the surface, go get Globgor and that army of knights he saw chasing "Bren", and bring them back down here to end it. He knew his way into the castle. He could tell them how to easily break in. And before they attacked he could slip inside and pretend he hadn't done anything wrong. A risk, sure, but perhaps doable if he was fast enough.

But he couldn't. He couldn't risk the possibility that guards were overlooking the outside or motion sensors at the ends of the vents, in case anyone tried to escape. Neither of these things could exist or both of them did, but Tom knew it was too risky to take that gamble. He had to stick to the plan. He wasn't even a quarter done, and he was already wasting too much time.

Tom huffed and crawled in the vent, briefly stopping to grab the filtration device and put it back in place. It automatically stuck to the wall again and got back to work, immediately erasing the few clouds of smoke that gathered in its momentary absence. Tom breathed a sigh of relief and then moved forward, pausing again after he made it about six feet. He turned to his right and pressed his back against the wall, preparing to kick out the opposite one. On the count of "two", he thrust both his legs forward and smashed straight through the stone, creating a hole that was the size of a small car. Tom grinned but then grimaced as he peered into it and saw only darkness, black as night but with no stars to illuminate it. But there was no other way around it, so he grit his teeth and jumped down into the void, hitting solid ground after a three-second free fall.

But immediately after the sound of his feet stopped echoing in the dark, Tom started hearing whispers. He could barely make out what they were saying, but he did hear something that sounded like "meat" and "fresh". The prince took both of these things as very bad signs, and decided it'd be best if he hurried up and got the hell out of there as fast as possible. His entire hand was engulfed in flames a second later, as any smoke would simply float through the hole and eventually reach the outside like the rest. Now having a light source, Tom started speed-walking into the darkness, keeping his eyes open for any prisoners that escaped.

Thankfully though, when he looked into the various cells as he passed them, all he saw were discarded bones and rotting flesh, any prisoner far too dead to cause any harm to him. He almost felt a pang of sympathy for them, being left down here to starve and rot, before he reminded himself that most of these guys committed crimes that would cause a person to be killed on sight in most dimensions, and instantly any delusions of empathy he had vanished.

However, this didn't stop him from being anxious. After all, this was still only the start of the dungeon, where the inmates with the lowest chance of escape were kept. The weakest ones. The one that would die first if left alone forever. So unless Bren had secretly ordered for all of them to be killed, then the odds were that something was still alive down here, especially if those whispers he heard earlier weren't just an auditory hallucination. And while Tom could easily wipe the floor with anyone stored down here, insane as they might be, the last thing he wanted was to get ambushed and dog-piled. If they followed him back to the hole and into the castle…

'...Wait.' He thought, stopping short. 'Hold on just a second. That…that's actually not a bad idea. If I let those guys loose...if anyone's still down here and I set them free all over the castle...then I can easily destroy the other gates. All the attention will be focused on them, and it's not like they can say _who _set them free before they're killed on sight. And even if they try, _I'll _just kill before _they_ can under the guise of "I was trying to protect Bren".'

"Alright then." He announced, grinning widely again as his voice echoing throughout the dungeon. "Come and get me. I'm right here."

The prince heard several murmured whispers in response, most of them seemingly arguing with themselves if they should listen to him or not. Tom just ignored this and pressed forward, knowing he still had to destroy _this _gate before setting all the psychopaths free. After a few minutes of walking, all the while hearing faint footsteps and voices behind him, Tom found himself in front of the date, several large dents embedded in it that showed clear signs of an escape attempt. At the foot of it were giant rocks with cracks in them, as well as bent metal bars that once entrapped the demons in their cells. No doubt the weapons they tried to ineffectively break the gate down with.

But just like the last gate, to the right of it was another opening mechanism, only this one looked like it hadn't been used in months. Tom started wondering why the prisoners didn't just open the gate using this once they broke out of the cells, until he realized that what he thought was the gate "mechanism" was just a trick of the light. On closer inspection, it was actually a vaguely shaped rendition of the mechanism crafted with what looked like chunks of stone, rotting flesh, and ribs. Tom nearly gagged at the grisly sight, not sure either it was meant to be macabre fun by the inmates or if they truly thought that creating such a thing would get the gate open.

But there was no time to dwell on that, as the footsteps behind him started getting louder. With no need to smash the mechanism, Tom turned around and cleared his throat.

"I know you're there." He said, entirely without fear. "So why don't we skip the whole "you attacking me or eating me " thing and you can just hear me out. I have something to say."

"..."

"..."

"We don't care." A raspy voice hissed from the darkness. "You demons...you who live in the castle..you abandoned us here. Left us to rot. The stones are too smooth to climb. The gates are impenetrable. You left us knowing that we could _never _get out!" They shrieked. "You...the ones who stayed outside...betrayed us."

"_We _betrayed you?" Tom said incredulously, almost forgetting what he was about to announce at this little claim. "That's a pretty odd thing for you to say, considering that I know most of you were put in here for _treason._" He sighed. "But you know what, I don't care. I'm here to make you an offer."

"We don't want to hear it…" The prisoner hissed. "We don't know why you came. We don't know why you were heading to this gate. But we _do_ know who you are, _Thomas._" He spat. "One of the royals of the Lucitor family. One of the _very _demons that are the arbiters for our fate! It was demons like you who locked us in here."

"Okay, but like I said, most of you are in here for good reason," Tom grumbled, already beginning to grow tired of this whole exchange. "You have no one but yourself to blame for your crimes."

"No…" The prisoner said. "We were trying to do the right thing. We were trying to help the Underworld. We rebuked your rule because the Lucitors are weak. We have magic. We are the only kingdom that does, since the Merge. We should have taken it all over! We could have conquered Earthni with ease! We could have conquered the entire planet! The whole Earth...a dimension of demons. A sanctuary for our kind. No more loving underground like this. No more staring up at a sky that isn't a sky at all. No more weak rulers like you!"

Tom frowned and facepalmed. "We wouldn't have succeeded. The price for those spells would have been too high. We'd have run out of people to sacrifice _long _before we even took over _one _country. Demon Magic isn't like regular magic. It takes time and work. Two things that we'd run out of _really _quick if we tried to take over the world."

"Doesn't matter." The prisoner shot back. "Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter! We don't want your deal. Not if it comes from someone like you!"

"Someone like me-are you people insane, or just idiots?!" Tom yelled. "I'm offering you a chance to escape here! It doesn't matter who breaks you out, if you had any sort of sense you'd take it! So just follow me and I can get you back into the castle, and there you can kill as many people as you want!"

"Even if we _did _want to follow you...it wouldn't work." The prisoner said, putting on a mocking tone for the last three words. "There is no way out that will allow us to escape without being killed. The gate is impenetrable. Nothing we have can break it down. We would die of old age long before we managed to get through it. The same goes for the walls. Breaking us out is impossible."

"Wait…" Tom said. "How do you think I got in here?"

"You...teleported?" The prisoner guessed. "You are Thomas Lucitor, yes? You should have the ability to teleport. Unless my visit is getting cloudy with blood again…"

"No, it's me," Tom reassured him. "But I didn't teleport. I broke a portion of the wall that leads to a vent that _leads _to the inside of the castle. Didn't you hear that? I feel like all those stones hitting the ground would have made a decent amount of noise…"

"Sound travels differently in here." The prisoner said. "The warden sacrificed a few of us and cast a spell so that it makes things much harder to hear, especially from further away. Voices, footsteps, whatever. Made it so that we prisoners couldn't communicate with each other and think of a way out together. We have to be close to hear what others are saying."

"Fascinating. But…hold on. Real close? How close is-"

Tom started, before he surely felt a breath on his neck. It was warm and slow, and felt like the owner of said breath was no more than a few inches away. He gasped and whipped around, waving his flame-engulfed hand widely, only to see nothing. He waved it around more, spinning in a circle as he did so. But whoever was speaking to him clearly didn't want to be seen, and evaded his poor attempts at doing so.

"You can stop now." They said. "I've been practicing this kind of thing for months. We all have. And I can say with certainty that we will not be seen by you unless we want to, even if we are literally clinging to your back."

"Just...just how close _are _you?" Tom asked nervously. "_Where _are you?"

"Close enough that I could kill you at any time I wish." The prisoner said. "But...I will admit. Your words...had a bit of an effect on me. I am intrigued. I shall hear you out. But make haste. It's been weeks since we've eaten anything, and we're running out of straws to draw."

"Oh my god, you psychos _do _want to eat me," Tom mumbled, before realizing that he shouldn't have expected anything different, all things considered. "But okay. Like I was saying, I didn't teleport in here. And why would that even be a problem if I was going to break you out! The fire involved in that sort of thing doesn't hurt anybody unless I want it to."

"Fool." The prisoner seethed, still sounding a million miles away. "The warden, who is your _grandfather, _by the way, took special care ensuring that we can't get out of here, even with that. If someone tries to teleport us in, we will burn up quicker than a dried-up leaf lit aflame. Like the sound, we had a spell cast on us that makes us extremely vulnerable to any kind of fire, regardless of whether you "allow" it or not. If you want to break us out and prevent your fate, you must destroy that gate!"

"Relicor is the warden of this place? That's surprising…" Tom muttered, before shaking his head. "No, I don't need to do that. I didn't teleport in. And I told you all this earlier, but I guess it didn't stick." He sighed. "I broke a hole in the wall. I can toss you up to it one by one and you can escape through there into the castle. But only into the castle, because there are probably guards on top of the walls on the other side and they'll hit you with a crossbow if they see you."

"Lies!" The prisoner said, which was followed by many faint echoes of the word by other inmates. "There is no way to get in through the wall. No amount of fire will melt it. No amount of magic will pierce it. It has been properly enforced, and-"

"All I needed was a good kick." Tom pointed out. "It wasn't that difficult."

"...What? How did you do this? There should be no holes that lead into any weak spots, if such a thing even exists. How did you break down the wall with just a kick?"

"...You don't know that the smoke filtration system exists, do you?" Tom guessed. "You don't know about any of that…"

"What smoke filtration system?" The prisoner queried, confirming Tom's theory. "Wait, is this why the smoke smell suddenly disappeared one day?! That was the best part of being down here! The only thing that reminded us that we were in the Underworld and not hell!"

"Uh...the Underworld _is _hell," Tom said. "I mean, it's not called that but it's basically the same place in a lot of cultu-"

"Nonono!" The prisoner shouted. "They're not the same place. They're separate locations. Hell is hell for demons _and _mortals." They explained. "It is a place of unending darkness that anyone with a sliver of goodness in them cannot reach. Even _we _wouldn't be able to travel there, and that is how horrible you must be to cross into it. Didn't your parents teach you anything about this?"

"...No?" Tom replied, starting to regret bringing up this topic.

"Typical of royals…" The prisoner scoffed. "They lead these kingdoms, they judge their people, they sentence "criminals", but in the end they don't know anything. They may understand how to lead and judge, but it is _us _who have the true knowledge that they don't bother to learn because they don't see it as important! They are-"

"Okay, ENOUGH!" Tom shouted, his entire body erupting in flame. The entire dungeon seemed to light up, and for a moment Tom got a glimpse of the prisoners surrounding him.

They were _everywhere_. In the fleeting second where the flames illuminated everything, Tom spotted dozens of them, surrounding him on all sides like a horde of zombies. And they all _looked _like zombies as well. Most were missing entire limbs or chunks of flesh, some of the wounds clearly inflicted with their bare teeth or hands. They all shied away at the light, hissing like a group of snakes. Tom only had time to gasp before the fire engulfing him involuntarily died down, sputtering and fading like it was running out of oxygen. A second later, the only flame that remained was the one attached to his hand, and the darkness returned and hid the prisoners from him once more.

"Oh jeez…" He whispered, noting how much he had underestimated just how many there were. "Stay back!" Tom shouted. "I only need one of you to talk to me! The rest of you back off or you're getting a fireball right to the face!"

At first, the only response to this was a few discontented murmurs, but soon afterward he heard several scuttling sounds, all of them leading away from him. Tom could still faintly feel the breath of the one behind him on his neck, but he had a hunch that asking _him _to move was probably a bad idea.

"Okay, good." He said. "Now listen up. Like I was saying, there is a smoke filtration device that leads into the wall directly next to the gate. I broke into it and smashed part of the wall. I can help you get up to the hole, and then you can enter the main castle and take revenge. You don't have to kill me, and you also get what you want. Everyone wins."

"If there's already a hole…" The prisoner started. "Then what's stopping us from killing you now and just entering it _without _your help? You're not really needed anymore…"

"Can any of you jump twenty feet straight up?" Tom asked. "Because I'm betting that's how high that hole is."

Unbeknownst to Tom, a few of the demons actually _could_, but most of the rest were unable to and simply grumbled in the darkness, realizing that the prince was right. The one standing right behind Tom sighed dramatically and moved a little closer, to the point where he could feel his chin brushing the back of his head.

"Fine." The prisoner said. "But if you betray us...or try to leave _without _us...then we will tear you apart, carve out your ribs, stick them to the wall, and use them to climb up to that hole ourselves."

"Good idea," Tom grumbled. "But if you try that beforehand, then I'm engulfing my entire body in flames so that can't touch me, and then personally making a request to Bren that we should kill every last one of you due to being a waste of oxygen. Without telling him I came down here of course."

"Wait, you answer to who?" The prisoner asked. "Who's Bren? What the hell is happening out there?"

"You'll see," Tom said. "I'm not sure how happy you're going to be with the changes, but at the very least, due to how many insubordinate guards have been killed...let's just say that your takeover of the castle will be a lot easier."

"Good." The prisoner hissed. "That's all that's important."

Tom huffed and resisted the urge to laugh. Obviously, they weren't going to make it far. The second Bren heard about the prisoners breaking out, he'd send that unkillable war demon against them, the same one he had sent against the town a while back. It'd make quick work of all of the inmates, and allow Tom to disable the other gate mechanisms with all the commotion. He had no doubt that most of the guards would run and find the war demon to watch the carnage and bloodshed (it had been a while since they had properly seen any of these things, which was practically a drug to demons in their position), and therefore leave them open to sabotage.

All he had to do now was hope that these psychos didn't betray him…

"Alright then," Tom said. "Now follow me, and I'll lead you to the hole and toss you up towards it."

Tom then walked away and felt the breath of the inmate behind him disappear, although several faint footsteps followed after his, like the sound of a million little mice scurrying through the walls. It was disturbing to the extreme and gave Tom an immense sense of anxiety. Especially considering how _close _they had to be for him to be hearing those noises. No more than a foot away, at the very least. He briefly looked around, trying to make it look like a casual glance and not an inspection to see where they all were. But despite how close they _should _be, he saw nothing in the light of the fire. Only shadows, stretching up the wall.

"I can't wait to see for myself. What has happened?" The prisoner suddenly asked, making Tom jump slightly. "Who is Bren? Why were we locked away and abandoned one day without being told why? What is going on out there?"

Tom sighed and decided that it would be easier to just tell him and get it over with. "Nothing good." He said. "Basically, what happened is that one day, this teenager with white hair and orange eyes who looked like a human comes knocking at the door to the castle, asking to see my parents. The guards tell him to get lost, and I guess he took exception to that, so he killed them."

"Some human...single handily dispatched the guards at the front gate? All ten of them?" The prisoner pondered, sounding quite shocked. "What sort of weapons did they have that allowed them to perform such a feat…?"

"Their bare hands."

"What?! But how-"

"He's possessed," Tom explained. "And this possession grants him insane levels of strength, durability, reflexes, whatever. He easily wiped them all out and then forced his way into the castle, killing anyone who got in his way."

"What about the wall archers?"

"From what I heard, he caught all the arrows and threw it back at them," Tom said. "But after he got in, some of the guards abandoned their posts upon seeing what he did to the ones at the front gate. Most just let him walk by no problem. A few did try to stop him, but…"

"They met the same fate." The prisoner deduced.

"Yup," Tom said. "So after that, he found my parents and gave them an offer. In exchange for handing over their armies and giving tactical command of them to _him_, they'd survive and be placed somewhere in the outskirts of the Underworld, where they could peacefully live out the rest of their days while he wreaked havoc on the surface."

"Why does he hate the surface?"

"Because Star Butterfly and the rest of the Butterfly royal family, even though most of them are technically fake, destroyed the realm of magic which consequently destroyed his home dimension as well. I'm pretty sure he escaped through the use of the Fire-god, which is the thing he's possessed by the wa-"

"The Fire-god?" The prisoner grunted. "You're going to have to be more specific. There are many gods of fire. Dozens spread across hundreds of dimensions."

"No, there's just one, but he comes in many shapes and sizes," Tom said. "It's all the same guy, he just..._appears _different to each civilization. I don't know why, and I don't particularly care."

"Hrnnn…" The prisoner hissed. "But you say he is possessed? Then what chance do we have to stop him or even take over the castle? The divine might he holds is nothing compared to what we have…"

"Here's the thing about that," Tom said. "I'm not entirely sure he's possessed anymore. When someone is taken over like that, whether by something divine or not, their eyes usually change color. But...his eyes are green now, not orange. I think he's back to his normal, unpossessed self. Which means he had no powers. No super strength. No durability. No...nothing. And right now, he's heavily injured. Like, all his bones are broken, I doubt there's a single drop of blood left in his body, and I think that even some of his organs are exposed. It's not a pretty sight."

"To _you _maybe." The prisoner scoffed. "But...how is he alive. I don't believe humans possess that level of durability when it comes to surviving grievous injuries. Or any creature really."

"Well, he's not human for one thing, he just looks like one. I honestly don't know _what _he is." Tom said. "But for another, I _think _he's being kept alive by the Fire-god. I'm not entirely sure of this, but if he's being possessed by that guy then it's the only explanation that makes sense. He doesn't want to lose his pawn."

"So what you're saying is…"

"You can restrain him super easily," Tom said.

"Restrain…" The prisoner guffawed. "Ludicrous. You say he is immortal. That he cannot die. Well, we will see just how true this is. We will find him, cut him into a thousand pieces, and dump each chunk into the lake of fire one at a time. Let's see how "immortal" he is after that."

"Feel free to do that," Tom said. "But just make sure to grab him before he gets hold of a small black device lying nearby."

"Why?"

"It's...uhhh…" Tom stuttered, knowing that informing these inmates that he was working for Bren, even unwillingly, was a very bad idea. "It's a failsafe. If he presses the button on it, then it'll blow up the castle and everyone inside. Including all of you. So if you find him, you have to get to him before that if you want to survive."

"I see." The prisoner said. "But I have another question. What is _your _job in the castle?"

"My...job?"

"Yes. _Your _job." They repeated. "You must work for him in some form, unless you've been sneaking around and hiding in the walls or something. Which I sincerely doubt, considering that you don't seem very skilled in lurking around dark places. You didn't even notice us until we revealed ourselves to you! So...what is your job?"

"I'm...a janitor," Tom said. "I mop the floor. I pick up trash the other demons leave on the ground. All that. Bren thought it was humorous for the former prince to be assigned to such a low and menial task."

The prisoner laughed. A deep, guttural laugh that was shared by the other inmates. "Hmm...I might hate this person with every ounce of my being since first hearing of them, but it does seem we have a similar sense of humor. You. Doing janitorial work. That _is _hilarious. I'm sure it must be humiliating."

"It is," Tom growled. "I don't need to be mocked anymore for it than I already have, thank you. But you can see why I'm doing this now. No more humiliation. No more false rulers. No more Bren. I'm going to save my parents and get the hell out of here."

"Your parents…" They hissed. "I'm assuming that's why you're doing this. Why you didn't turn against him earlier. If you step out of line, he kills them, right?"

"...Yeah, actually." Tom said, surprised at how fast they had figured it out. "He has their heads on the chopping block at all times. I have to do everything right and never question an order, or they die. I've already lost a few family members to this. Everyone has. They're all terrified out of their minds."

"Interesting…" The prisoner hissed. "Then I'm guessing the _real _purpose of that black device Bren has is to alert the guard that has their head "on the chopping block" to kill them if the need arises."

Tom stopped walking like he had run into a brick wall after this sentence registered in his mind. 'W-what?' He thought. 'How does he know? I haven't said anything to suggest that's what the device does! I told him it was to blow up the castle, not that! How did he figure it out?'

"How did he figure it out…" The prisoner said. "That's what you're thinking right now, isn't it? And don't try to deny it. The expression on your face and the way you stopped moving confirmed it all. So...that is what you're thinking right?"

Tom nodded and gulped. "I never told you anything that hinted at that being the truth. How? How did you know so fast?"

"Well, I knew the second you confirmed that you had to do your work or else your parents would die." The prisoner said. "I was also aware of the fact that Bren's remote blowing up the castle was a total lie. He wouldn't do that. Based on what you've said, he's been working on...whatever he's doing for months, and there's no way he's going to destroy what I assume is his base of operations. It seems he's strong...or, at least, _was _strong enough to repel any attacker. So why would he need something like that when he can kill a person with a flick of his fingers?"

"..."

"Exactly. He doesn't. So, if the remote doesn't blow up the castle, why else would you tell us to get it? What's so important about it that you'd want us to retrieve it for you and smash it?" He asked rhetorically. "You gave us an answer yourself. Your parents. A kill switch for them. Case closed."

"...So what?" Tom said defiantly. "So what if that's what it does? This doesn't change anything. Yeah, I lied to you to protect my parents, but don't act like you haven't done things that are a thousand times worse."

"It's not that you lied to us...it's the _other _hidden truth that this one presents." The prisoner said.

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, obviously Bren has that device for a reason. To kill your parents. To make you do your job." The prisoner said. "But there's no way he'd have such a device for someone doing _janitorial _work. It honestly isn't that important. We didn't even _have _a janitor before! We just left trash and other garbage where we wanted it and the second after it hit the ground it burned up! So...he doesn't have that remote to encourage you to be a janitor. No, he's using it to encourage you to do something _quite_ different…"

"Or maybe he's just scared of me because I'm the prince of the Underworld and have a lot of powers that he doesn't," Tom said, perfectly calm on the outside but panicking on the inside. "A guy as strong as me, you'd want a remote to rein me in no matter what job I'm doing. You're right. The remote isn't to make me do janitor stuff. It's to prevent me from attacking him. That's my job, and that's the reason. End of discussion."

"..."

"...We shall see." The prisoner said. "When we get to Bren, we will ask him what your job is, and if he says it is anything else _but _janitorial work, then _we_ will press the button on that remote and kill your parents."

'Good luck with that.' Tom thought. 'It's not a kill switch, it's a phone you morons, and the second the person on the other end realizes that it's not Bren who's calling, they'll send an alarm to every demon in the castle. And then I'm sure you'll smash it out of anger along with the rest of the copies. Either way, I win.'

"Good idea," Tom said. "You do that. Now…" He glanced to his left as the door that led into the castle entered the light of the flame. "We're here."

"Ah. Where is it?" The prisoner asked. "Show us. Now!"

"Up there," Tom said, pointing a finger at the ceiling where the hole could faintly be seen. "Then you take a right and kick out the filtration device, and you've made it into the castle. Simple as that."

"Good…" The prisoner hissed. "Then go stand near the wall. You're going to give us a boost."

"Actually…" Tom said. "I have a better idea. One _won't _require me to touch any of that pale, diseased mess you call your body."

"What did you just say?!" The prisoner asked furiously, but by then Tom was already walking over to the wall right beneath the opening. He rubbed his hands together, causing them _both_ to be engulfed in flames, before raising his arms and beginning a low and demonic chant that sounded like someone's garbage disposal attempting to speak.

"**Summone torque daemonis!**" He shouted, and instantly a bright orange light erupted from the hole and then solidified into a thin line. He heard more scuttling sounds as the inmates backed away from the light like a bunch of frightened rabbits, murmuring all the while. A second later, the line turned into a glowing chain and flung itself out of the hole, smacking against the wall and hovering an inch above the ground. Tom grabbed the chain and yanked it as hard as he could, but it stayed in place, showing all the inmates that it was safe to use.

"There you go." He said, moving back from it. "You can just climb up that and not have to rely on me at all."

"..."

"Don't even think about it." He said. "Just because I'm not useful to you anymore doesn't mean I can't kill you. The second I feel someone grab me I'm summoning a portal and burning them to hell."

"Your threat is duly noted." The prisoner said. "Very well. We shall take our leave now. Kill this Bren. But remember what we said. If you're not the janitor…"

"You'll kill my parents, yes I know." Tom sighed, knowing full well that the odds of them even reaching Bren in the first place were almost zero. "Now get out of here and go cause some chaos. I'm guessing it's what you people do best."

"As you wish, _my prince." _The prisoner mocked, before moving away. Tom stepped further away from the chain until it was engulfed in darkness like everything else, it's faint glow shining through. Shadows began to cover it and it rattled as the inmates began to climb it, and Tom heard several whispers as they did so, talking about where they should go first and who they should kill. After a few minutes of this, the chain fell silent and stopped moving, indicating that everybody had made it up. The sound of the filtration device being kicked out of the wall and crashing to the ground filled Tom's ears, and a second later a few squeals of surprise and pain were heard, no doubt from the inmates first victims.

"Well," Tom said, cracking his knuckles. "Time to destroy those other two gates before the guards mobilize and wipe them out. Hopefully, those idiots don't make _too _much of a mess…"

With no more need to worry about people smelling smoke, Tom's hands and feet ignited and he flew upward towards the opening, unsummoning the chain in the process. He made it back into the vent and crawled his way back into the main castle, only to be met with a trashed hallway. Destroyed pieces of art, mangled bodies of demons, a few of which looked like they had been the inmates, and bloody footprints leading in every direction.

"Morons split up," Tom commented, shaking his head. "If they stayed together as a whole, they might have stood a chance…"

He jumped down onto the floor and didn't waste a second before running along, unsure of how much time the little prison break he just staged had bought him. Everywhere he looked was more of the same as the first hallway. The inmates were certainly moving fast, but Tom still knew he didn't have anything to worry about. All they had was the element of surprise for now. Once word of their escape got out…

Well, Bren would be merciful to throw them back _into _that hole.

But soon, as Tom had so _flawlessly _planned, they'd all be dead and everything would be set into motion. No escape, no source of food. No source of food, nobody willing to follow orders. Nobody willing to follow orders, and Bren had no army. And sure, once the Mewnian/Earth army invaded the Underworld to kill Bren, he'd probably use Tom's parents as a last-ditch gamble. But he was confident that they'd be saved before that, so Tom wasn't worried. And even better, with Bren as he currently was, freaking out and _possibly _unpossessed (he actually wasn't _completely_ sure of that, maybe only fifty percent), things would be all the easier as his master became more prone to making rash decisions.

And then Bren would be killed, preferably by his hand, he would be set free, pardoned of all the shitty things he did by either Eclipsa or Star because he was being controlled, and life would go back to normal. Albeit with much, much more defenses at the Underworld's disposal. Tom knew Bren was all pissy because his home dimension went kaput, so who's to say that the same thing didn't happen to _another _dimension?

They had to be prepared, just in case. And the first thing they were going to do was execute every guard whose loyalty went to Bren immediately without having to be threatened first. The ones who liked change. An example needed to be made. The Underworld would no doubt lose most of its reputation because of this whole incident, and they needed something to show that they were not weak and vulnerable. They were powered by fire and rage and-

"HEY!"

Tom stopped short and looked to his right, his thoughts thrown out the metaphorical window at the sound of someone's voice. Standing there, no more than a few feet away, was Nidhogg, a large snake-like demon who was in charge of sending out messages throughout the castle and the entire Underworld. He was also known as an all-around jerk, constantly ruining people's days with bad news and sending them messages at the most inopportune times.

So, basically, just doing his job.

But he was certainly not doing that now. Nidhogg had half of his entire family wiped out by Bren and their bodies sent to him by the Underworld's _second-best_ message handler in a gruesome twist of irony. From then on the snake-Demon was fiercely loyal to the person who had almost wiped out his entire bloodline, to the point where Tom suspected that he was brainwashed.

And now he had to deal with him, causing Tom to silently groan and wonder how he hadn't been the first casualty in the prisoner break.

"Thomas?! Thomas Lucitor?! " Nidhogg exclaimed, staring down at the prince like he had seen a ghost. "What are you doing, not being at Bren's side? Haven't you heard? The prisoners have escaped! Don't tell me you've _abandoned _our master when things-"

"No, I was just fetching someone for him!" Tom said quickly. "Bren wants to see Nishum, so I'm fetching him for him."

"Bren sent you off on your _own?" _Nidhogg asked, suspicion coating every one of his scales. "I don't believe it. He _never _leaves you unattended. And while I have seen him take his eyes off you, Bren would never send you off on a mission without proper supervision!"

"Go ask him yourself," Tom suggested. "I have nothing to hide." He then turned around and started to walk away, hoping that the demon would just leave him alone, but Nidhogg leaned in and grabbed Tom by the shoulder, his grip cold and unmoving.

"I don't think so." He said. "You're not going anywhere. Your story is too radical to be believed. Do you _really _think that I'd be fooled by such a-"

"I'm on a timestamp here," Tom said, which was technically true, just not for the job Bren gave him. "Bren told me that I had to bring Nishum to him in fifteen minutes or less, and if I took any longer I'd be punished." He turned around and glared at the demon. "And I'm sure that _causing _me to be late would make you eligible for that punishment as well, Nidhogg."

Instantly, the snake demon let go of Tom's shoulder and slithered back like he was terrified of him, to the point where it looked like Tom's threat had worked a little _too _well. But a second later, Nidhogg hissed loudly and then sighed, before moving back over.

"Fine." He said. "But I am escorting you to make sure that you don't try anything stupid, and to protect you from those inmates running around creating a mess. If Bren's most valuable asset gets hurt and he knows that I could have prevented it, then _my _blood will be spilled next to yours."

"I don't need your protection," Tom said. "I could probably quell this outbreak single-handedly if I wanted to. And I can heal from almost any wound those morons inflict on me anyway. They're not particularly strong, and they're also moving in small groups. It's not like-"

"Wait. How do _you _know that they're moving in small groups?" Nidhogg asked.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Oh screw it, I'm not in the mood for any more of this" Tom said, his hand igniting in flame. Nidhogg's eyes widened and he tried to back away, but Tom was too fast and tossed a fireball at the snake demon the size of a small car. He screamed and the prince caught an outline of him before it practically exploded in a shower of ash. A moment later, the dust cleared and all that remained was a half-melted pile of armor and a small mound of what looked like ground pepper.

"Nosy bastard…" Tom growled, before moving on. As he ran, he cursed and chided himself for his foolishness, using so many definitions for "stupid" that one would think he made a few of them up. "Shouldn't have done that. _Should not _have done that. There was not a single demon in that prison capable of conjuring up fire. When they find him...all eyes will be directed on me. I'm the only one who could have killed him, and then everyone will discover that I was responsible for the prison break, and now everything is ruined!" He shouted, before stopping and leaning against a wall.

"No." He said. "Don't freak out. Not yet. There's still a way out of this. That Fire-god...he's no longer possessing Bren. His eyes are no longer orange. There's _no _reason for him to be doing that unless everybody he wants dead is killed. Which means...Bren somehow broke out of his control, and is now trying to do his own thing while simultaneously fighting to stay _in _control." Tom surmised, every single bit of information from this theory coming from the few passages he read from the book he loaned Janna.

"So if he's fighting to stay in control, then the Fire-god wants to get back in control, which means...which means…" He gulped and slid down the wall. "If I can somehow stage all of this, the prison break, me killing the guards, destroying the various gates, and whatever else I'm about to do next as nothing more than a ploy to allow the Fire-god to repossess him so that his plan can be once again set into motion...and then somehow _get _the Fire-god to do just that, then Bren _might _be merciful and not kill my parents once everything is said and done." He clutched the side of his head and growled. "It's the only way. If I teleport that ash out of here, they'll notice the scorch mark on the floor as one from me teleporting something, and I won't be able to fit that into the ploy plan without sounding suspicious."

Tom scoffed. "Impossible." He said. "How could _any _of this somehow allow the Fire-god back in? What could possibly-"

"RUN!"

Tom jumped again and looked to his right, expecting more unthinkable trouble, only to see none other than Nishum, a terrified expression on his face. Behind him was a small horde of extremely malnourished and angry looking demons, no doubt some of the prisoners that had escaped. Tom was about to let them pass by, until a smile spread to his face as a plan was formulated.

'Oh.' He thought. 'Now _there's _an idea.'

Without thinking, he stepped in front of Nishum once he had run past, cutting the inmates off from him. They only had time to glare at him in confusion before Tom raised his arm and summoned a portal leading to Earth, trapping them all inside it. However, just like they claimed earlier and Tom had planned, the prisoners weren't teleported but rather obliterated as the fire burned them to oblivion. One second was all it took, and then the portal vanished, leaving nothing behind by more ash in its wake.

"Holy…" Nishum started, coming up behind him. "Thank you, Thomas. I thought they were going to get me. But...hey. Aren't you supposed to be with Bren at all times? What happened to him?"

Tom quickly wiped the smile off his face and turned around, putting on an expression of franticness and pure fear. "He's in trouble! He's heavily injured, and he sent me to retrieve you!"

"What?!" Nishum screamed, still as gullible as ever. "What does he want with me?"

"I don't know," Tom said. "But it's really important. Now are you going to follow me, or do I have to tell him that you disobeyed a direct order?"

Nishum's eyes widened and a look of pure terror spread across his face, one that Tom had seen many times in hundreds of different demons in the past couple of months. "I...I'll follow you." He said softly.

"Good," Tom said, unable to suppress a smile at that. He turned and ran back towards where he last saw Bren, and Nishum followed close behind like a dog with its master.

His plan of destroying the gates would have to come another day, as the one of keeping his life was all that was important. It was a stretch, a long-shot, and would probably never work, but Tom knew he had to try. It all rested on a few assumptions he had, and the hopes that the ones up top were in a good mood once this was all over.

That was all he had.

* * *

"Bren" slowly made his way to the castle, covering his ears and attempting to drown out the noise of the siren that had just been set off a few seconds ago. He knew this alarm. It meant that there was a breakout at the prison. The inmates were free, and "Bren" had had to avoid quite a few already by hiding behind corners or in hidden rooms. He was in no condition to fight, and even if the Fire-god would keep him alive, he'd rather not get any more messed up than he had to be.

But every time he was in the clear, he kept moving as fast as he could, seeking out Tom. The prince had been sent off on a mission to find "Nishum" so he could be healed, something that "Bren" greatly regretted making him do. Because now, he was left to find him like this. A hobbling mess with no way of defending himself. Sure, he had one of the remotes, but it's not like it'd be any kind of weapon against anyone else other than Lucitor. If an inmate found him, he was finished, so all he could do was pray that they didn't.

But eventually, he heard two sets of footsteps coming down the hall. "Bren" quickly ducked behind a nearby pillar, peeking out from behind it to see who it was this time. And to his immense relief, possibly the first emotion he had felt beside irritation since leaving his room, he saw Tom there, with a rather short and weak-looking demon by his side, evidently the "Nishum" he had sent him to get. And even better, Tom was coming his way, and a few seconds before he passed the pillar, "Bren" stepped out from behind it. Tom was clearly shocked and froze in place like he had run into a wall, while Nishum merely gazed at him wide-eyed, no doubt shocked by how injured he was.

"Lucitor!" He shouted, making both demons tense up. "Good. I found you. Now quickly, open us a portal to the surface. We're leaving the Underworld. For good."

"For…good? What are you talking about?" Tom echoed, greatly confused as to why "Bren" had switched tactics seemingly out of nowhere. "What do you mean for good?"

"I mean for good." "Bren" repeated. "We're leaving and we're not coming back. I'm going to set off all those bombs we hid in those buildings by hand, using a countdown of course, and blow all of Earthni straight to hell. Then we're heading to Washington and taking control of the nuclear system. Destroying the world. Killing anyone left in Echo Creek. All that." He took a deep breath. "It's time, Lucitor. It's time we finish this. Once all is said and done, you can come back down here and live the rest of your life out, I don't care. But remember, until all that is finished, your parent's lives are still on the line." He held up the remote. "Got it? Good. Then let's go."

"..."

"I said, let's _go." _"Bren" repeated, before turning to Nishum. "As for you, your services are no longer required." He said. "But thank you for not being an idiot like most of the rest and trying to turn against me. For that, at least, you have some amount of my respect."

Nishum gaped at "Bren" like he was insane, but Tom merely tensed up again and started sweating, his entire plan falling apart right before his eyes. 'What...why...damn it!' He thought. 'Why is he doing this all of a sudden? Bren wouldn't do this. He wouldn't make such a sudden and rash decision, and...oh.' He then frowned deeply, a revelation coming to light that he finally got confirmation on. '_Bren_ wouldn't do that. But this probably isn't Bren anymore, is it? Yeah, this proves he isn't possessed. And...I wonder. If he's not possessed anymore, then will his remote work? Every time he puts his hand on it and starts another one of his annoying monologues, that button always lights up the slightest bit.'

Tom shifted in place and his eyes darted over towards the remote, which "Bren" was still waving around as he talked to Nishum about loyalty or some crap. 'But it's not lit up right now. I don't see any light coming from it.' He thought. 'Which means...I think it turns on whenever he touches it. It's hand-activated. And since it's not lit up, that must mean it can tell whether he's possessed or not. It must have been a fail-safe the Fire-god made him put in, in case something like this ever happened. And...holy shit.'

Tom's eyes widened and his fists clenched up as yet _another _realization struck him in the face. 'That means he's not any kind of threat to me right now. I can take him out. He...no!' The prince thought, gritting his teeth together. 'No, I can't just kill him. The Fire-god won't let me, and even assuming that he does, the amount of problems that would arise from his death would be too high to count. Bren has been in control of the entire Underworld for six months. Everyone is in his control. And it's split into two distinct groups. The demons that are fanatically loyal to him, and the demons that are only loyal to him because of fear. If I kill him, then the latter group will rejoice and thank me and whatnot. But the _former_ group…'

Tom cursed under his breath as his eyes darted over to Nishum, following along with everything Bren said, a perfect example of the former group.

'...they're the ones that are going to be the problem. They're the ones who didn't like my parents. The ones who _never_ liked Lucitor rule. The ones that were _begging _for change like those prisoners! And now that that change is here, they're not going to turn back simply because he's dead! They're going to live his legacy and try to take over and create a new empire! It'd be a civil war. An Underworld Civil War. And...huh.' He paused. 'Underworld Civil War. Why does that sound strangely familiar?'

Tom paused for a moment before passing it off and regaining focus, not allowing himself to be distracted by any trivial matters. He turned back to "Bren", babbling at Nishum aimlessly like a politician on steroids. 'Okay. That's going to be a problem. This backtracks my plan even _more, _because it means he can't die right now no matter what. If he does, then someone will just step in and finish what he started like no one's business. And if that happens, civil war. With the real Bren gone and likely without a teleporter, the demons that hated him will have no reason to fear him. If a full-on war breaks out between the two factions, at _least_ half of all demons in the Underworld will die, and I'd rather us not become an endangered race because of this crap. Enough of us have already been lost to this psychopath, so at this point, every life counts. Well..._almost _every life.' He thought, gazing over towards Nishum.

'I have to deal with that and make sure it doesn't come to pass.' Tom then shook his head, before turning away from Bren, continuing to think to himself. 'But what's _worse _is that this means I have to do so many impossible things if I have any chance at beating him on my own, or even assist the guys up above in taking him down. I need to convince the demons that are loyal to him that following Bren sucks and get them to switch over to our side, cover my tracks in this prison break to make it look like I was trying to help thus carrying out my current plan, trick the possessed Bren that I was trying to help afterwards assuming everything goes well, I still need to-'

Tom suddenly gasped and all three of his eyes widened as a lightbulb lit above his head. He suddenly had a brilliant idea. _Again. _One that would surely solve most of these problems. Without warning, he turned back towards his master and cleared his throat, causing "Bren's" and Nishum's eyes to set themselves upon him.

"What is it Lucitor?" "Bren" asked. "What do you want?"

"...I have a suggestion to make." Tom said. "I think you should use the demons to help destroy everything, like the original plan was. But instead of setting off those bombs, I think it'd be best to mobilize the demon troops and send them off to destroy Earthni just like you originally planned."

"Bren" put his hands on his hips and looked at Tom like he was the lowest thing in creation. "And why would I do that?" He asked.

"Think about it," Tom said. "What do you want most?"

"As of right now, to screw the fire god over for being such a prick." "Bren" replied. "He's betrayed me. I'm not listening to him anymore. I got my own thing now."

"Ah…" Tom breathing, noting how this confirmed for the final his suspicions that he was no longer possessed. But he could still use this. "Okay...but what's the _second _thing you want most?"

"For Star Butterfly to die and for the entire town of Earthni to suffer." "Bren" said. "You already know that! You've been right by my side the whole time like a loyal dog!"

"Certainly not by choice," Tom grumbled, before speaking in his normal voice again. "Yeah, and there's always been _one _thing that I've noticed. You like getting your hands dirty. I know that the old you claimed that he didn't, that he only killed people personally when it became necessary, but I know _you _aren't him. You _like _killing people for fun, don't you?"

"Bren" thought about this for a moment before nodding, memories of the murder of his family and the numerous other atrocities he committed before the Fire-god stumbled upon him coming to mind. "Yes…" He whispered. "I suppose I do enjoy going into many a frenzy when it comes to killing. There's just something so satisfying about seeing the look in their eyes. The powerless look, that shows your in control, and they're nothing but a victim."

"...Yeah. Sure." Tom said quickly. "But if you enjoy doing all that, then why are you setting off the bombs and killing everyone at once? Wouldn't it be better and more enjoyable for you to kill them by hand?"

"You make a decent point Lucitor, but ironically, you seem to lack eyes despite having more than me!" "Bren" shouted. "Look at me! I am in no condition to fight! Even if I am unable to die, I'm no stronger than a cocker spaniel. I'd be swiftly defeated by any opponent." He then glared at the demon and held up the remote. "And don't even _think_ of-"

"Yes, I know!" Tom said. "But...this is why I recommend you heal yourself first! That way, you can go out and kill everyone by hand! Just like you want! It'd be so much more satisfying than blowing them all up from afar!"

"..."

'Come on, please work.' Tom thought. 'Come on, this is my only chance! He has to get back to the book and sacrifice Nishum to heal himself, _then _I can call the prisoners over so they can beat the absolute shit out of him, and hopefully, that will disorient him to the point where he can be repossessed! Then the prisoners will be killed, I can leave under the impression that I want to kill the _rest _of them, and then burn them all to the hell they were talking about, thereby giving the impression that I only left to mop them up for him because I was worried more might come in and harm his unpossessed self. Then because of all the demons they killed, the castle may finally be given an example at just how incompetent he is for allowing this to happen, and everything will start fall apart. It's...it's only a step, but it could be worth it in the long run.'

"..."

"..."

"...You make a compelling case…" "Bren" said. "Alright then Lucitor. Lay out your plan for me. What do you think I should do to achieve this little objective? And make sure not to leave anything out. Whatever idea you have for victory, I want to hear every last bit of it.

'Oh, thank god that you're so stupid.' Tom thought, struggling to hold in a sigh of relief. 'The old Bren would have never even let me speak, much less listen and then commit to a suggestion I had. Is he so desperate for something to do without the fire god that he's forgotten that I still hate him?'

"...Well?" "Bren" said expectantly. "Lay it out for me. We don't have all day."

'Huh. Guess so.' Tom thought, before clearing his throat. "Okay. Here is my plan. We go find that book you have that had all the spells in it and heal you with...you know. _Then _we gather up all the armies of the Underworld that are under your command and send them off to the surface to start slaughtering people. We'll have a few hundred form a ring around the town so that nobody can escape, and also to kill anyone who tries."

"I like where this is going…" Bren said. "But then what? We still have to take down over all the nukes in this country and blow everything to hell. This is the way it has to happen if we're aiming to piss off the Fire-god."

'In your dreams. Also, blow everything to hell with nukes? What is he even trying to accomplish here? I thought he was made at Earthni, not the entire damn planet. Is there some alternate motive here that he hasn't informed me of…?' Tom pondered, before shaking his head and resuming his explanation. "I know. I'm getting to that. But I think we should finish up Echo Creek. So, after we kill all the citizens, then we can set off the bombs and destroy Earthni. But...those nukes you mentioned, I don't think we should use those."

"Yes, I am beginning to see the logic behind that," Bren said in an almost robotic manner, as if Tom's word was law. "After you mentioned how I like to do things with my bare hands, I began to have doubts about whether I should use those or not. But after what you just said...yes, I think I see where you're getting with this. You plan for us to go from town killing people just like Earthni I presume. It will be much more fun that way. Both for me and the armies of the Underworld."

'Actually no, but sure, let's go with that.' Tom thought. "Yeah, that's the plan. Now, I think we should start with small towns, and then work our way up to it. That way, we can train ourselves and figure out strategies to take out bigger and bigger areas before moving on to the major cities. And as for the military...well, they shouldn't be a problem. I'll just teleport in and take them out. It may be a bit off-track compared to what we're doing here, but I think it's necessary."

"No, I disagree on that." "Bren" said. "We can handle the military. We have many more of those demons that he...that _I _attacked the town with a few days ago_. _Not even a nuclear bomb will heal those things. Earth can't do anything to them that will permanently destroy them. We will fight the military, and you shall be on the front lines."

'Sure, whatever.' Tom thought. "If you say so, sir. But this is a good plan, right? This way you get everything you want. Everyone up there dies, and you get to slowly relish it all. And not only that, but you also get to…um…"

"Show the Fire-god that I never needed his help with this." "Bren" said. "Show him that he's worthless, and neither me nor anyone else requires his assistance in this crusade against the ones who destroyed my home and ruined my life!"

'Oh my god, he has not thought this through at all.' Tom thought. 'That's literally the opposite of what's happening. I don't have my powers without the Fire-god, and the only reason he's gotten anywhere and is _going _to get anywhere is because of me. That is the…' He closed his eyes and then shook his head, shaking away his thoughts. 'No. That's not important. Make a note on how much he's gone off the deep end later. You're so closer. Just a little bit more…'

"Sounds brilliant," Tom said. "And the first thing we have to do, again, to get you in that condition…" He jerked a thumb over towards Nishum, who was standing nearby, still clueless as to why he was here. '...Is to heal yourself with that so you are fully presentable to your armies. They're not going to listen to you while you look like that of course. You need to-"

"Alright, I get it." "Bren" said. "I don't need you lecturing me on physical appearance, Lucitor. You make a good point, but just say it once and get it over with." He then walked past Tom, who was clearly resisting the urge to blast him with a fireball for that remark, and glanced towards Nishum. "You!" He said. "Follow me. We're going back to my quarters. There's something I need you to do."

"Yes sir!" Nishum said eagerly, finally happy to get a chance to do something important. Tom rolled all three of his eyes at this display of enthusiasm, fully aware of the demon's fate as well as the fact that he was probably going to be the one to kill him. Again, he didn't feel particularly bad that he was going to die for this plan to succeed. One less Bren sympathizer was good news for him in the long run, even if they sympathized was nothing more than, quote-unquote, "cannon fodder".

But just like that, "Bren" turned around a second later and started hobbling back the way he came, Nishum following close behind. Tom did the same, once again mentally shaking his head at how trusting "Bren" was being right now. If he didn't have to worry about an Underworld civil war right now…

"**Just what are you planning to do, boy?"**

"AH! What the hell?! Who-!" Tom exclaimed, stopping in place and nearly tripping over his own feet at the sound of the sudden voice in his head, one that was most definitely not his own. "Bren" and Nishum turned around to face him, with the former glaring at him intensely.

"What's the problem?" He asked, clearly peeved at this outburst. "Did you sprain your ankle or something?"

"I...um…" Tom stuttered, practically unable to form a coherent sentence as he tried to figure too many things out at once. "Y-yeah. I tripped over one of the stones. It's fine now though." He said quickly. "I'm a demon. I healed it up pretty fast."

"Bren" huffed in disappointment. "Yeesh. Be more careful next time. My condition is a thousand times worse than yours and you don't see me complaining." He then faced forward again and moved on, Nishum giving Tom a suspicious glance before following along again. Tom remained in place for a few moments, wondering if that voice had been real or just some kind of hallucination, and he was about to pass it off and move on as well when-

"**I asked you a question."**

Just like before, Tom stopped like he had run into a brick wall at this statement, only this time without making any noise. He stood trembling in place, actually afraid of whatever this was. But only because of the voice itself. It wasn't some mundane, average, small-talk sort of voice. It held power. Authority. It was the kind of tone his dad would use while addressing the armies of the Underworld, only this one sounded like he was speaking to a crowd of people that numbered in the billions rather than the thousands.

"Wha…" He began softly. "Who are-"

"**Keep walking." **The voice commanded. "**You'll make yourself look suspicious if you don't."**

Tom gulped and then obeyed this order, quietly following "Bren" and Nishum again, but this time keeping his distance, getting the feeling that he was about to have an extremely unpleasant conversation with...whoever this was.

"**Good." **The voice said. "**Now, I am going to ask you again. What are you planning boy?"**

"What?" Tom whispered. "Okay, first off, who are you? What's going on? And did you seriously just call me "boy"?!"

"**Shut up!" **The voice hissed. "**You are not the one asking questions here, **_**Lucitor. **_**I am already angry enough with you as it is."**

"Okay…" Tom said nervously. "But could you at least grant me the honor of knowing your name, so I'll have something to call you?"

"**With your vocal cords, you would be unable to pronounce my true name." **The voice said. "**But I suppose there is no harm in revealing who I am to you, as I suspect that you would figure it out anyways. I am the god of fire. The creator of Demon Magic, the Underworld, the last of the parallels, and the one who gave Bren his powers."**

"..."

"**..."**

"...Oh my god."

"**Yes…?"**

"No, I meant…" Tom started. "I-I can't believe I'm really talking to you. I've heard about your existence my whole life. I've told so many times to keep you a secret, that only the most prestigious of Royals in the Underworld or the oldest of scholars are allowed to know who you are, and what you've done." He gulped. "Of course, that's turned out to be rather ineffective, as you're practically a public figure because of this whole mess, but it's just...wow. I'm not sure what to say."

"**Good. Because I do." **The Fire-god said. "**Now, what were you-"**

"Oh, wait, yes I do. I know exactly what to say to you." Tom interjected. "You goddamn asshole."

"**What?! What did you just call me?!"**

"You asshole," Tom repeated, as nonchalantly as possible. "That's what I see you as. Because all of this is your fault, isn't it? You gave Bren his powers. You gave him the resources needed to blow up the town, to summon that demon, to go to the hospital and kill people. That was all you. I don't care if you're a god or the creator of my home. Do you…" He lowered his voice and started speaking under his breath, his eyes flashing in anger. "Do you have any idea how much pain and suffering you've caused to come to my friends? To come to _me? _Are you even sorry for any of that, or do you see it as necessary for whatever reason?"

"**You disrespectful little…" **The Fire-god started, before huffing. "**Do you have any idea who you're talking to? You may claim you don't care that I'm a god, but I'm pretty sure you will when I kill your parents with a literal snap of my fingers. Do you want that to happen? If not, then you will listen to what I have to say and speak when I want you to. Recognize your place, boy. Which is beneath my feet."**

"You won't kill them," Tom said, in a way that showed he completely believed that statement. "If you do, then "Bren" has nothing to hold against me. And you still need him alive."

"**And **_**you **_**won't kill him." **The Fire-god claimed. "**Don't think I didn't hear your little internal monologue earlier. You need Bren alive and well otherwise the Underworld gets plunged into chaos. Even if he kills your parents, or if I do, you still have to serve him if you care the slightest about your home dimension."**

"Then it looks like we're both bluffing," Tom said.

"**No, I'm not. Did you not hear what I just said? If your parents die, you'll still follow Bren to save your dimension. It's either that or go to the surface and let the Underworld tear itself apart. No matter who wins, it could spell the end for your race. With no way other than you for them to get to the surface, and with Demon Magic and portals being unknown to everyone except the royalty, **_**who will either all be dead or missing,**_ **they will be stuck done here to fight amongst themselves for whatever resources are left, while those on the surface prosper and live on."**

"..."

"**Finally shut up? Good. Now I-"**

"One last thing," Tom said. "I know you told me I'm not allowed to ask questions, and that you're in complete control here, but I have to know. When did gods become such huge jerks? Why are you like this?"

"**...We've always been that way." **The Fire-god said with a sigh, seemingly accepting that Tom wasn't going to listen to him if he didn't answer this question. "**You mortal beings always portray us as these entities of ultimate wisdom and power, fearing nothing and no one. We are made of shine and might and put down evil wherever it is found, and we graciously reward our followers for worshipping us with gifts and bountiful harvests."**

"Just listing off stereotypes there…" Tom mumbled. "And…?"

"**And that is not the way it is." **The Fire-god said. "**We gods are not beings of infinite wisdom and power. Yes, we are stronger than almost any other living being. No mortal could come close to reaching our level of power. But it is not infinite. If that was the case, then why would I be doing this? If I could do absolutely anything I wanted, I wouldn't have sent Bren to do my dirty work. I'd have waved my hand and taken care of the problem myself in a fraction of the time."**

"I think I've heard of this before," Tom said. "In a book in my grandfather's library. Gods are powerful, but they all have to follow-"

"**The rules, yes." **The Fire-god interjected. "**Those accused rules. Created by the first one. Don't know where they are now, probably off ruining more people's lives, but the rules they set in place are still here, and will **_**always **_**be here. They are the rules of physics, of magic, of biology and neurology, and every other "ology" out there. They are how the multiverse stays together. No one may break them. For me, the rules dictate that every single living creature, god or otherwise, needs something to survive. For us gods, it is belief. We need people to believe in us so that we can survive. For what is a god if they have no followers? Just a ghost, which is what we become."**

"Oh...that's why he wants to set off all the bombs." Tom realized. "He wants to kill everyone that knows you exist, then kill everyone in the government who _also _knows you exist, and then I'm guessing he's going to try to kill me and then himself."

"**Yup. And these rules are something I lied to him about earlier. I claimed I could kill everyone whenever I wanted. I have no idea what his reaction will be if he finds out I can't…"**

"Interesting...although I never fancied him as one for suicide…"

"**He's not." **The Fire-god said. "**I think he's gone crazy with rage. And I mean even more crazy than usual. Without my influence, he is a psychopath. But also an amateur, as I'm sure you've seen. Without me, he would have never gotten far in this crusade."**

"No doubt about that," Tom said. "But go back to what you were talking about a few seconds ago. About how gods really are."

"**...Very well. My next point is the followers." **The Fire-god scoffed. "**People worship us. They call our names to the heavens and beg for gifts that are neither theirs to receive nor ours to give. I care not for the lives of the literal little people. If they worship me and keep me alive, fine. Do whatever you want. Sacrifice people in my name. Burn entire planets and dimensions in my name. Do whatever the hell you want, I don't care. As long as you're aware I exist, that's good enough for me."**

"Boy, this would probably screw up every single religion out there…" Tom said. "Assuming all gods are like this."

"**Most of them are. We keep to ourselves whenever necessary. You mortals are all so...complicated."**

"You're one to speak," Tom muttered. "From the sound of it, gods are even bigger jerks than "us mortals" are. I'm not sure whether to be disappointed at this revelation or impressed by it. Probably both."

"**You can think whatever you want of it. Again, I don't care. And now you know why gods are such jerks. We just want to survive, and we don't care how. We've been alive for billions of years and each one is the same as the last. And when all the mortals die, we do as well. Everything ends, the multiverse is fake and cold once more, yada yada yada. You get the idea."**

"Uh...I guess." Tom said, still working all of that through his head.

"**Good." **The Fire-god said. "**Now, I'm going to ask you again. What...ARE YOU DOING?!"**

"Ah! God, you don't have to shout!" Tom complained, covering his ears as if that would make a difference. "I'm pretty sure you're inside my head. Stop freaking out."

"**Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that I'm a little bit ABSOLUTELY LIVID." **The Fire-God growled. "**What are you doing exactly? What is your plan here? You've been causing chaos everywhere you've gone. Destroying one of the gates, a plan that I've noticed you've abandoned. Freeing all the prisoners. Tricking "Bren" into healing himself before he sets off on Earth omnicide. What are you doing and why are you screwing everything up?"**

"Okay, before you freak out again, I think I should let you know that what I'm doing works out in your favor," Tom explained. "You want "Bren" back under your control, right? Well, my plan will help with that. I need him back because I can't...do other things with this psycho running the show, and you want him back because that same psycho won't listen to you and wants to erase you from existence."

"**Explain then." **The Fire-god demanded. "**And this better be a damn good plan."**

"It is, trust me," Tom said, before taking a deep breath. "Okay, so originally, I was going to destroy all the gates and seal all the exits in the castle to create chaos. With no way out, the demons inside would start rioting and no longer listen to Bren as they slowly realized that they were trapped. I got the first gate done pretty quick, but then I had to go to the prison to get to the second one, and that's where things...fell off the rails."

"**You mean you let everyone out and started a riot on your own for whatever reason." **The Fire-god scoffed. "**And by the way, most of those prisoners are still lurking around somewhere, so I'd recommend you keep an eye out. I don't want you dying before you finish this explanation."**

"Thank you for your weariness," Tom said sarcastically. "But anyway, I went in there and let them all out because I saw a way that they could help me, and also for the fact that I didn't want to die because of demons like _that_. I abandoned the gate plan soon after because it was no longer a viable option, and then I set them all free. I stumbled upon Nishum after wandering around for a while...and that's when I came up with my new plan."

"**I already know all this." **The Fire-god growled. "**You're just repetitively repeating the events of the past. Get to the point and explain your plan or I will-"**

"I was _just _about to do that." Tom hissed. "Like I said, we both needed Bren back for our own reasons. And when I saw Nishum, I came up with a way to do it. The first step would be to find "Bren" and convince him to heal himself by killing Nishum. After that's finished, I blast him with a fireball or something to momentarily incapacitate him. He can't hurt me or anything, because of the whole voice activation on the remote and stuff, so there would be nothing I'd have to worry about there. Then step three. I call the prisoners. I shout and I bring them all to where we are, and I tell them to go at "Bren". They get mad, start beating him up, with you keeping him alive with your powers, and just like last time at the hospital, all those people assaulting him should provide a big enough emotional discharge for you to take back control and for the original orange-eyed bastard to come back. There. That's my plan."

"**..."**

"..."

"**...Okay."**

"Wait, seriously?" Tom asked incredulously. "You're going along with it? Just like that? I was sure that you were about to yell at me or keep berating me for the plan being so stupid or having such a low chance of success or any of that sort of thing…"

"**Oh trust me, I want to." **The Fire-god reassured him. "**That is one of the worst plans I have ever heard. It does indeed have a low chance of success, as while "Bren" is stupid or just insane enough to fall for most of what you just said, there is no guarantee that I will be able to "take control" again while he is being beaten into a bloody paste."**

"Then why are you going along with it?"

"**...Because I want to see him be beaten into a bloody paste. For no reason than the fact that it will entertain me after all he has done. And if I can repossess him, then that would be nice also."**

"Wha-what _he's _done?! But didn't he accept your offer to possess him from the start? And...and…" Tom then paused, realizing that he really shouldn't be shouting a gift horse in the mouth. "Okay, you know what, nevermind." He said. "I have a lot of questions concerning that statement, but if you're going along with it and don't have any objections, then I'm not going to start complaining."

"**Smart boy."**

"Please don't call me-"

"**Don't tell me what to do." **The Fire-god pouted, almost like a child. "**But I suppose that I will be taking my leave now. I have no further obligation to provide you with more information, and you have given me what I want to know, and I have found it to be acceptable. Adieu Thomas Lucitor. And for what it's worth, I wish you luck with your plan. Although I only agree with it because of the entertainment benefits, I will try to regain some sort of control over him. If all else fails, just take the book of Demon Magic spells he has, kill him, which I will allow by the way, I no longer care if he dies or not, and go to the surface. The Underworld might be beyond saving at this point." **It sighed. "**You know it to be true. Everything ends."**

"_Excuse _me?!" Tom exclaimed, frankly both offended and stunned by the advice the Fire-god gave him. "You...you knew he could...and you never mentioned...and that advice is the worst you could possibly give me, what is _wrong _with you?! You...you...you're not there anymore, are you?"

A momentary silence followed, answering Tom's question. He shook his hands in rage and then groaned, before glancing forward at "Bren" and Nishum, who were a good twenty feet ahead of him at this point. Conveniently, in the time that conversation took they had just about made it back to "Bren's" room, and Tom's anger switched to mild panic as he realized that soon it would be now or never. The two of them turned and entered the room, Tom jogging slightly to catch up with them. "Bren" went straight for the book that was located on a shelf, covered with a thick layer of dust a few thousand years in the making. He blew on it and it all flew off, and instantly the cover of the book became visible.

All three of them peered down on it in curiosity, with "Bren" frowning deeply, Nishum looking like an intrigued child, and Tom having a weary expression on his face. The cover of the book was a deep red in color, with several symbols etched into it that resembled Norse runes. Tom didn't have the foggiest idea what any of them said, which alerted him to the fact that the manuscript was probably _much _older than it looked. On the spine were more symbols, although there was _one_ he recognized. It was a straight line with another, shorter line crossing through it.

"Nauthiz…" He whispered, almost on instinct. He only remembered it because of his father, who had a collection of books with similar symbols. For some reason, that one had caught his eye, and he had asked what it meant. His father gave him the name, but not the meaning behind it.

The book in question his father had was apparently about how the suffering of sentient beings was an inevitable truth, so Tom suddenly felt an urge to hide behind a pillar the second "Bren" opened _this _book. Demon Magic books were like mystery boxes. You knew what you wanted, and what you were looking for, but in the end, you were never quite sure as to what you were going to get. It could burst into flames, start speaking an ancient tongue, or melt your face off with a beam of light if you so much as _looked _at a page the wrong way.

Or it could just be a regular book with no magic powers. Who knows.

But "Bren" obviously didn't care about the risks, casually setting the book down on a table and flipping it open to the front cover. Tom winced and stepped back, and once he confirmed with a quick glance that nothing appeared to be off, he moved forward again to help with the healing ritual. And to help "Bren" find the correct page in the first place.

"Are you sure this is what we should do Tom?" He asked. "Your plan is a good one, but if we're going to take over and then kill the world, I personally think it'd be more...intimidating for the leader of said conquest and slaughter to look like _this. _A true monster that can't die."

"Well…" Tom started. "That's an interesting idea, but I think we should stick with this. Besides, why not let them find out you can't die in the _middle_ of battle? Say someone stabs you in the heart with a sword. It will be a lot more entertaining if you casually pop it out and smile or something."

"That...does sound like it could be fun." "Bren" admitted, before starting to flip through the book. "Very well. Guard the doorway then. That prison riot is still going on after all, and I'd rather not have any of those bottom-feeders interrupt this ritual."

"Understood," Tom said, walking backwards towards the door. He briefly glanced around the corner once reached it and saw exactly what "Bren" had feared: A group composed of about ten of the escaped convicts, covered in blood, and Tom couldn't tell how much of it was their own and how much belonged to other people. But once they spotted him, clear confusion plastered itself on their faces, and they started to approach.

"No. Don't." Tom mouthed, causing them to halt. "Not yet. If you really want revenge for what Bren has done to you, wait there until I give you a signal. He's in here, but you have to wait."

"Why?" One of them mouthed back. "If "Bren" is in that room, then I think It'd be in your best interest to get out of our way. Finally, he will get what's coming to him for locking us away like that. And we will kill anyone who tries to stop us."

"I know," Tom replied, wetting his lips in nervousness. "But please just wait. I promise that it will be more satisfying that way."

The prisoners all exchanged glances for a moment, as if silently communicating with each other, before the one at the front of the group slowly nodded. Tom breathed a sigh of relief and then turned back to "Bren", who was reading over a page that Tom couldn't see any part of.

"Here it is." He announced, holding up the tome. "According to the spell, I need to draw a specific symbol in the ground with several of these runes inscribed inside it with the blood of a slaughtered and helpless demon, and then stand in said circle." He shrugged and set the book down again. "Seems simple enough."

"It would seem that way," Nishum said, still clueless as ever. "So how do we go about that? Are we going to have Tom drag one of the prisoners over here? Sacrifice them and heal you? And then I'll draw that circle for you?" He shifted in place, eagerly awaiting the answers to his many questions. "That is what you brought me here for, yes?"

"Yeah…" "Bren" said, before looking at one of his fingers. With a sharp tug, he ripped off the remaining skin and muscle off the end of it, revealing a long and jagged piece of bone. Nishum gasped slightly at this macabre act, looking at "Bren" like he was crazy.

"Um, what are you-" He started, but by then it was already too late. "Bren" drew his hand back and quickly slashed Nishum across the throat with it, his fingerbone/makeshift dagger cutting it open in less than a second. Nishum only had time to widen his eyes and gasp for the final time as he fell to his knees, blood pouring out like a river. Tom looked away from the scene, feeling slightly sorry for Nishum. Even if he had supported "Bren" to the end, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty for his death.

But if "Bren" felt any guilt from this murder, he didn't show it, and calmly waited as Nishum bled out on the floor next to him, reaching out for the person he had obeyed so obediently.

"It's okay." "Bren" said. "You should be happy...um…"

"Nishum," Tom said, mentally facepalming.

"Right. Nishum. You should be happy." "Bren" repeated. "From what I've seen, you always wanted to serve me. You wanted change. You wanted to get rid of the Lucitors. And when I came along you got your chance. And now you can die knowing this. Your sacrifice will be of _great _use to me in the future. Let that be the last thought that passes through your mind. For your hard work and deed, I grant you my permission to die happy."

'Jeez.' Tom thought, as Nishum finally went still. 'I think that's the first time since his eyes turned green that he _actually _sounded like Bren. Does killing people just make him more composed or something? Because if so, then that's...intriguingly disturbing.'

As Tom continued thinking to himself, "Bren" sighed as Nishum because a corpse, his neck still dozing copious amounts of grey blood. He then glanced at the book and started dragging the corpse over to the center of the room, before walking over to one of the shelves and grabbing a brush-like instrument, no doubt something his predecessor/successor had placed there in case of a situation like this.

"You know something, Lucitor?" He asked, making Tom snap to attention. "I think this is the first time in years where I've felt something that wasn't hate." "Bren" started slathering the blood all over the brush as he spoke, occasionally glancing back towards the book to check that he was getting everything right. "I wasn't a happy kid, as I'm sure you've guessed. Not many friends in the plains of fire. Of course, there weren't many _opportunities _to make friends…"

'Annnnnnd there is it.' Tom thought, narrowing his eyes in annoyance. 'I was wondering when he was going to get into a backstory monologue. I figured that it was inevitable, considering the kind of person he is. Desperate for attention, maybe. He wants to be remembered. Although considering that he's trying to kill everyone…' He sighed and looked away, his own thoughts making him feel bored. 'Oh, forget it. I'll just listen to his little story for now. Maybe there's something in there that I can use against him if…_when _the Fire-god takes control again.'

"...But I coped." "Bren" continued. "You see, religion was our culture in my dimension. The religion dedicated to the Fire-god. All the so-called "elders", who I'm sure were nothing but senile old men, spoke of a time where the entire dimension fell into darkness, but the Fire-god raised us back into the light. It was cheesy as all hell, but it was a story told to us almost weekly. To make us remember what he did for us and why we should praise him. I hated it."

"Bren" grit what remained of his teeth as he began painting a circle on the ground, using such a nonchalant tone that one would assume he was shopping for groceries. After the circle had been completed, he inspected it for a second, the same way a teacher might inspect an answer on a test.

"Because I began thinking to myself." He said. "Why should I praise this being? Why should I have anything to do with them? I don't see them. "Do _you _see them?", I asked the elders. I wanted to know what their answer was so badly, Thomas. I had waited days for a proper chance to talk to them, to get time to ask just one question, and what I did when the chance finally came...was to challenge their thinking." "Bren" wet his lips and chuckled softly. "They weren't happy about that one. But the answer did satisfy me. Because they didn't have one. Their god of fire wasn't in front of them, patting them on the heads for doing a good job of worshipping him."

He suddenly flicked the brush over towards Tom, causing some blood to splash across his cheek. He flinched at the sudden spray, and glanced at "Bren" like he had just murdered an entire litter of puppies right in front of him. (So, shocked, but not _that _shocked.) He then gulped before wiping the blood off his face, frowning as he heard a chuckle from the prisoners once they realized what had happened.

"Sorry." "Bren" said. "I saw you spacing out. I had to make sure you were paying attention. But back to my story, that was when my disdain for following this person that I had never even seen in my entire life went public. People started hating and shunning me for it. I thought it was completely justified. They said I had to have faith. I told them that once their precious god came down here and yelled "WORSHIP ME" to my face, I'd start to consider it. They were a bunch of brainwashed freaks. Blindly following whatever the elders said, and they themselves blindly followed the books, one of which…" He turned towards the spellbook and shook his head. "Was that one over there."

"Why didn't they just show you Demon Magic then?" Tom asked, his earlier attitude of frustration gone and replaced with minor genuine curiosity. Mostly because he was bored out of his mind, but also due to the fact that he hadn't expected "Bren" to be one to hate the Fire-god from the very start. "Bren" glanced at Tom like he had just insulted him, before shaking slightly as if a cold breeze had just passed by.

"They believed that it was...unnecessary." He replied. "Like I said. They told me that all I needed was faith and faith alone. They didn't want to show me actual _proof _because that would be breaking their word, even though if they had...I would have joined their little cult right on the spot. They were fully capable of casting the necessary spells. They just...refused."

"I thought elders were supposed to be wise." Tom snarked. "But you're making it sound like they were just lazy at their job and didn't want anything to do with you."

"I'm sure those things were true as well." "Bren" said. "When they discovered that nothing short of seeing the god himself or showing me the spells would convince me to turn to their side, they gave up. It was the first and only time anyone in our dimension had ever refused to follow that religion of the Fire-god."

"Something before you go on…" Tom mumbled. "If you hated your local religion so much, then why did you praise the Fire-god so much? You were practically ecstatic anytime he was so much as _mentioned_."

"I was possessed, remember?" "Bren" said. "There were definitely parts of me in there, the main driving personality, but the influence of that ego-driven fool always managed to take hold whenever I started getting "ideas" that he didn't like. And I did eventually start worshipping him. Once I discovered that he was indeed real, at the very end of it all, I did exactly what those elders had wanted me to all this time. It was just that easy. Appeared in the sky, explained the situation, and I believed in him. Of course, now I realize that if he had done that earlier, then none of this would have happened. I understand him a great deal...but I never truly understood why he waited until then to show himself to me."

"Getting the feeling that he planned this all out from the start…" Tom whispered to himself. "Although if that's true, then he's the real bad guy here, isn't he? Guess that's all we've been reduced to. Pawns in the game of a god…"

"What did you say?"

"Nothing," Tom said. "Continue with your story."

"...Very well." "Bren" said. "And so I was left alone. Nobody wanted anything to do with me. Again, they saw me as a heretic. They threw things at me on the street. They mocked and cursed because I didn't follow their pathetic little religion. I made an argument to those who would listen, told them that if the Fire-god is real, then he should show himself to us to prove it, but in the end, they turned away. They didn't like the idea of their entire culture being nothing but fraudulent. Because that's what happening when it comes to things like this. They don't like the answer they're given, and so they refused to believe any of it."

"And let me guess," Tom said. "This is the part where you killed a bunch of people? Because they threw things at you for not following their religion?"

"Oh no, that came later. And it was for an entirely different reason." "Bren" said. "But soon, I was nothing more than an outcast. The only people left that wanted anything to do with me was my family. And even then they treated me like I was diseased. I stayed in my room all day because I didn't want to see their stares, or hear their words of how I should reconsider joining the church in the most obnoxious tone possible. They said it with anticipation and kindness in their voice, although underneath it I could hear anger and disappointment. The twin villains of my early life."

Tom didn't say anything but nodded along to this, knowing _exactly _the kind of tone that "Bren" was talking about. It was the same one his father used when he was much younger, when he didn't want to go to balls or parties or all the other Royals duties. He'd rather stay home and torture his servants with fire. But his father always had a way of making him go, and it was his voice. The same one "Bren" had just described. Kind and understanding on the top, but underneath it was such a grave level of disappointment that it'd make any person feel like they had just been punched in the face. And since disappointing his parents was the last thing young Tom had wanted, he always gave in in the end. Eventually, he stopped arguing and just went along with them without any hint of rebellion, knowing that even if he tried his father would just get him to go eventually.

Tom then suddenly felt ill as he thought about this, disgusted with the fact that he had basically just compared himself to "Bren" of all people. He shook his head and looked back to the prisoners, who were growing restless.

"But as you mentioned…" "Bren" continued. "This is the point where I finally lost it. You see, "Bren" is not my real name. Early on I told Mina and a few others that it was merely a nickname, a shorter version of my real name. A lie, of course. My real name…" He looked away and grimaced. "...Is something else. But I decided that I wanted to go by "Bren". Because if my family didn't accept the old me, then maybe they'd accept the new one. A new name. A new person. They don't even have to acknowledge how the old one turned away from their religion. Because this new one hadn't believed in it in the first place. And I thought that maybe I could change their views as well. Make them see the truth. Make them stop believing in this little charade of lies that the elders were feeding us day after day, night after night, for our entire worthless lives." He sighed sadly. "Obviously...they didn't go for it. They told me that while I was allowed to choose my own path in life, changing my name, my identity, was something they could never allow."

"Sucks that you weren't on Earth." Tom snarked, not sure if his interest in this story was real or faked anymore. "All you need to do that is a stack of bills and a quick walk to a government building. Then boom, new legal name."

"Yes, I was quite impressed upon learning about this." "Bren" said. "I believe it is the only part of Earth culture that the...orange-eyed fool truly liked. You can become someone else in mere minutes. It's a shame that no other dimension had those same rules. But then again, most people in other dimensions are brainwashed and told never to become a new person, so…"

"I've never heard of anything like that."

"Well, you live in the Underworld. Literally Hell to the people above. Unless you're a Royal, nobody gives a crap what you do down here. Give yourself a new name, a new gender, it doesn't matter to them. As long as it doesn't interfere with their business."

"That is...surprisingly accurate," Tom admitted, recalling all the times he had seen demons doing some of the most profane things in public and everyone just passing by like it was the norm.

"Every time." "Bren" said, before clearing his throat and continuing. "So, they kept calling me by my fake name. The one I no longer wanted. I pleaded with them countless times. I begged them to call me Bren. But they refused. And after about...I don't know, forty? Fifty tries? Something like that…" He mumbled. "I finally realized that they were _never _going to understand. The brainwashing had consumed them entirely. They were too obsessed with the rules of the elders and their society to even _consider _accepting a new name from me. Because once a person fully accepts something, they can never look back. And they had accepted it since birth. So I did what I had to do. While they slept, I cut their throats as revenge. One by one, watching them slowly bleed out each time. I had restrained their arms and legs beforehand of course, but I could still see their faces perfectly. Pleading, terrified, and with some other emotion mixed it. I think it was either guilt or betrayal. To this day, I'm still not sure which."

"..."

"..."

"...You killed your entire family…" Tom started, his mouth hanging open. "...Because they refused to call you Bren?! If they were never going to understand, why didn't you just run away? Why'd you have to murder them?"

"Why did you care?" "Bren" asked. "You're a demon. Like I said, literally Hell. You've had to have seen things ten times worse than what I've described, nevermind the _stories _you've probably been told."

"That's not the point," Tom said. "The point is that I think you overreacted and-"

"Careful…" "Bren" growled, snatching the remote off the table and reminding Tom that he was still a prisoner under him. "I've been entertaining your comments for some time, mostly because they're...entertaining, but don't get too comfortable. I know you still hate doing this. I can't imagine how much it must suck for a prince of the Underworld to be forced into slavery because of a little button."

"I've gotten used to it." Tom seethed, so tempted to tell "Bren" that he knew he couldn't operate the remote that his hands were shaking from it. "But let's not ruin the mood that your story's created. We can talk about this _after _you heal yourself."

"A novel idea." "Bren" said. "Because I do think we have a lot to discuss. I think I'm going to need more leverage. We're invading the entire Earth, and it's going to be fun ordering you to do things that most demons only have nightmares about."

'...God, can you get _any_ more corny and cliche?' Tom thought, narrowing his eyes out of boredom. 'At least that's one thing this one and his counterpart have in common. They both think killing large amounts of people in tornadoes of blood is cool or whatever. It's really not, Bren! It lost its flavor with Mina! At least then it was actually interesting to watch.'

"Now, back to my story like you said." "Bren" sighed. "So I killed my family. I did it because they didn't accept the new me. I did it because they would _never _accept that person. But you already know that. But what happened _after…_" He shook his head and smiled lightly. "I started going down the line. First all the elders. Then the ones who threw things at me in the streets. Then everyone else who had tried to convince me to join their little club. I remembered their faces, where they lived, and how to get into their homes. You see, I had planned it all out from the...sorta start. I made sure to kill my family during the week of Agnej, which was a holiday in my dimension."

"What was it celebrating?"

"Something about an artifact that had the word "Agnej" in its name. Apparently, it was given to us by the Fire-god as a gift, but it was always kept under lock and key, where nobody was allowed to see it. It's gone now. It was destroyed when my dimension was, if it ever existed."

Tom put a hand to his chin and glanced at the spellbook on the table. "That sounds familiar for some reason…"

"Doesn't matter now." "Bren" said. "But like I was going on about, during that week nobody is expected to leave their homes. Which meant nobody would be checking up in my family. Which _meant _I could come and go as I pleased, killing anyone I wanted, with no chance of being caught as long as I did it carefully."

"So you just killed everyone then?" Tom asked. "The entire dimension?"

"I would have _liked to_…" "Bren" scoffed. "But unfortunately, someone named Star Butterfly ruined that for me. She destroyed my dimension. Took away what should have been mine. _I _wanted to kill the ones who had ruined my life, and she took that opportunity away from me! And so….I'm sure you can guess what happened next." He said softly. "The Plains of Fire started to fall apart. I saw everything dying around me, and only wished to take revenge on the person that had stolen my chance. Then the God of Fire appeared and offered that revenge to me. I accepted, and you know the rest…"

"Hold on," Tom said. "The possessed version of you claimed that you hated Butterfly because she destroyed your dimension and killed everyone you knew. _He _claimed he was doing this because he cared about them. But now _you're _spouting off about how your reasons for wanting to destroy Earthni is because _Star killed your dimension before you could?!" _He asked incredulously. "I...I'm not even sure what to make of that. I mean, I _suspected _that there was more to it, but I didn't know anything about _this."_

"Technically, "I" hadn't been lying." "Bren" said. "I told them I got mad because she blew up my dimension and its inhabitants. I just failed to mention the part that I wanted to kill them first. Same reason, different perspectives. I let their minds fill in the blanks. They can believe that they want to believe, doesn't matter to me in the end." He straightened himself and stepped away from the now complete circle. "And look at that. Perfect timing. The circle is finished."

'You crazy…' Tom thought, before shaking his head. 'No. Forget about that story for now. This is it. The second he heals, I'll call the prisoners over so they can beat the crap out of him. Hopefully, the Fire-god is on standby. I'll only have one shot at this, and afterwards…' He took a deep breath as "Bren" grabbed the book and headed towards the circle with it. '...I'll have to convince the orange-eyed one that I was doing all this to help him. As for the gates...yeah. Given up on that. Which sucks. I was really looking forward to carrying out the rest of that plan.'

"Alright. Stay there, Lucitor, and remember to not interfere." "Bren" said, standing in the middle of the circle and squinting at the page. "Now let's see here…" He looked down and placed his legs in two of the smaller circles that were contained inside the larger ones, dozens of the odd Norse-esque runes inside them. Once he did this, the circle started to glow a dull red, except for the runes, which shined in every color of the rainbow, like a wheel of colors brought to life. "Bren" glanced down at the runes nervously, before turning back to the book.

"Confervo…" He started, placing the book on the ground in front of him. "Sānāberis...ossium…"

Instantly, several loud cracking sounds came from "Bren's" body, and Tom watched in amazement as he saw his bones mending themselves, the broken pieces being forced back together and the missing ones appearing out of thin air. "Bren" grit his teeth in agony but continued reading, hardly even pausing.

"Sānāberis…" He said. "Incarnationem…"

As he said this, the circle glowed even more brightly, and "Bren" fell to his knees as the countless split and missing skin that ran across his entire body began sealing itself up. The chunks of flesh that were missing altogether shared the same fate as the vacant pieces of bones, forming out of nothing and covering everything up. This went on for about thirty seconds, until "Bren's" body looked exactly how it did before, with no injuries or outward signs of distress visible. Except for an unusual paleness, which Tom paid no mind as he tensed up and prepared to call the prisoners over.

"One more…" "Bren" gasped, causing Tom to stop short. "Sānāberis...sanguis!"

At this, Tom thought he heard a sound that was like the rushing of water, and "Bren's" paleness vanished from the feet up as the demon realized that he was filling himself back up with blood, something that he had been lacking for a good half-hour. Once the effect reached his head, "Bren" finally fell to his knees again and lay there panting, before arching upwards and grinning.

"It is done." He said, while Tom silently motioned for the prisoners to approach with his hand. "And now, Lucitor, it's time. I have healed myself as you suggested. It is time we invade the surface, and take revenge on the Fire-god."

"Yeah...about that," Tom said. "You know, while I think I actually prefer you to the one with orange eyes, and that story was actually really interesting, I'm going to have to say no. And by no, I mean hell no."

"What?" "Bren" seethed. "Have you already forgotten? I can go over there and grab the remote. Order the deaths of your family and-"

"No, you can't," Tom said. "I figured it out. You can't activate the remote. Only the possessed version of you can. Which excludes you from the equation. There's not a single thing you can do to me, but…" He cracked his knuckles and took a step forward. "...there is _so _much I want to do to you."

For a moment, fear flicked over "Bren's" eyes, and he stepped out of the circle away from Tom. But a moment later, he stopped and chuckled to himself, before looking the demon directly in the eye.

"Alright then." He said, outspreading his arms. "Come on. Kill me. Do whatever you want. But know this. When I die, the Underworld will fall into chaos. Ever since I came here, it had been split in two. A civil war like that will doom your entire species. So go right ahead, Thomas. But do it knowing that you're _murdering _all of demon-kind in the process."

"Well, here's the thing about that," Tom said. "As much as I'd love to beat the absolute hell out of you...I'm not going to do that."

"Ah." "Bren" said. "So you are not as insane as I had thought-"

"They are." Tom interjected, making "Bren" tilt his head at the demon. But before he could do anything else, a sudden swarm of demons flowed into the room, shouting and shrieking at the top of their lungs like a bunch of maniacs.

"KILL HIM!" One of them screeched, and without waiting another moment, the entire group charged "Bren" and tackled him to the ground. And then it was the same formula as before. Just like how it had been with the knights, the prisoners began beating on him with every ounce of their strength, and this time "Bren's" skin wasn't as hard as stone, he had no super strength to defend himself with, and Tom was standing by and watching the whole thing with glee. It was a brutal one-sided massacre, and every person there was enjoying it save for one.

But Tom knew that he had to be careful. He couldn't let this go on forever. If the Fire-god was in position to do his thing, then he needed to be ready to open a portal around the whole group and burn them to ash. A portal that would transport Bren a few inches to the right, providing no consequences for himself but plenty for the prisoners. He just had to wait for the right moment…

"Now!" One of them yelled, stepping back slightly. "We have broken his bones and snapped his skin. Time to finish it! Help me tear his limbs right off his body!" He shouted, leading to an enthusiastic whoop from the other inmates. Tom realized that now would be a good time to take action, and he stepped forward and began raising his arms.

"I'll get his right leg! And you...huh?" The lead inmate started, before he noticed Tom approaching and readying himself to summon a portal. His eyes widened and his lips curled into a thin scowl, before he spoke for the final time. "You traitorous little-"

Too late. Before another word could leave his mouth, Tom thrust his arms upwards, and immediately a giant pillar of flame erupted from the floor, consuming all present. The prisoners let it a primal scream as they were brutally turned to ash, their outlines flashing against the flames before vanishing entirely. A second later the only sounds heard were the fire itself, and Tom let his arms fall back to his sides as the pillar vanished and revealed "Bren" laying there, unmoving and as mangled and hurt as before.

Tom sighed and approached him, praying to the Fire-god that he had managed to take back control. Once he got close enough, he saw "Bren's" eyes twitch open, and was greatly disappointed to see that they were still green.

At least, at first glance. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that they were rather flashing between green and orange, like a pair of traffic lights. "Bren" coughed weakly and glanced up at Tom before chuckling weakly, blue blood pouring out of his mouth along with his laughs.

"...Huh. G-guess that it's then." He said, smiling slightly. "I can already feel it. That annoying and pestersome god...he's trying to take control of me again. Against my will. So much for sending someone up here to restrain me. I'm guessing he had just planned _this _out the whole time to throw me off the trail. Although I guess that still means he sent someone. Just one I didn't expect."

Tom sighed in relief, realizing that the beating had done the trick and that it wasn't long before things went back to "normal". He kneeled next to "Bren" and smirked at him with such smugness that one might assume he had pulled the greatest trick of all time.

"No, actually." He said. "The Fire-god didn't send me to do anything. This was all me. He just...asked what I was doing at one point and decided to go along with it. I'm sure it was the best chance he had at repossessing you. And besides, I'm sure he was happy that someone else was doing his work for him. From what I heard, the gods are…"

"Lazy." "Bren" finished. "Yes. They are. But they are still greater than any of us. I suppose if I had realized that sooner, this could have been avoided. It's ironic. All my life I refused to believe in him, all my life I was told that I would be punished for my transgressions, and each time they told me that I laughed in their faces. Then I became his one and only disciple. And now...I suppose they're right. I'm never getting the controls back after this. After what I tried to pull. This...is my punishment. The death the elders spoke of. Lying on the ground, they said. In a pool of my own blood, with someone looking down on me, after a failed attempt at Demon Magic." He coughed and sputtered, briefly licking his lips clean before shaking his head. "I suppose that since the prisoners completely undid the spell, it could be considered a failure."

"Yeah…" Tom mumbled, before pushing himself back up. "But you know? You deserve it. You don't want to believe in a religion because they didn't show you any proof? Fine. You have free will. You should be able to believe whatever you want to believe. Heck, I may even say that you're in the right in that regard. But…" Tom scoffed and clenched his fists together. "You killed your family. You tried to commit a genocide of your own race because they refused to follow your _own _beliefs in yourself. You were the multiverse's biggest hypocrite in that moment, Bren, and now...you're just a murderer. You never accomplished anything in your home dimension that the destruction of magic wouldn't have already caused. You did nothing worthwhile in the past few hours of free rein on Earthni and the Underworld. I'm sure that if you had been in charge since the beginning, you'd have-"

"Screwed it all up before the first day was even over?" "Bren" said, rolling his eyes. "I know. I think deep down I knew that from the very start, and so that's why I let the Fire-god possess me right off the bat once he explained the whole situation. But now...I thought maybe I could do it. Everyone was right where I wanted them. True, I failed even now, but it didn't hurt to try."

"It did," Tom said. "I released the prisoners and they've likely already killed dozens of your followers. You've been beaten to a bloody paste, just like the Fire-god wanted. And me...well, I suppose you haven't hurt me much. Just some empty threats and small talk."

"That's the thing though." "Bren" said. "I respect you more than he ever could. You're a prince of the Underworld. But you still try to do your own thing most of the time. You didn't care about your duties at one point in your life. I respected that. The refusal to follow the rules. To go against the grind. I thought...you were more than a slave. Maybe one I would have even freed you."

"No." Tom disagreed. "You would never have freed me. You were out to kill everyone who believed in the Fire-god, myself included. In the end, you would have tried to kill me just like the rest. Although I'm sure I would have rebelled against you far before that."

"Probably…" "Bren" said, before coughing again. His left eye was now a permanent orange while his right one had reverted back to half-green, half-orange. He smiled again and clenched his fists, hitting the bottom of his lip so hard that it bled. "Tom...I have one final piece of advice for you. We may not have known each other for that long, and you may hate me, but no matter what you do, make sure that the Fire-god pays for what he did by the end of all this."

"And why should I do that…?"

"Because." "Bren" said. "All this is his fault. Ever since the destruction of the Plains of fire, everything that has happened in Earthni is because of him. All the suffering, all the death, it's all linked back to him in some way. We've been doing nothing but acting like puppets on strings, and unless you do something to make sure that this world is free from his influence, you'll remain that way."

"I see…" Tom muttered, before shoving his hands in his pockets. "So...then everything's that's happened in Earthni's history is because of the manipulative powers of this god?"

"Are you kidding?" "Bren" asked, as his right eye went fully orange. "Everything in the history of the multiverse is because _they _want it to happen...that...way…"

"Bren" then fell silent, almost in a dramatic manner, and that same silence fell over the entire room. Tom waited for a few seconds before looking left to right, and was about to open his mouth when-

"Ow." Bren said, and just from that one word, Tom knew that he was back to his "old" self. He stepped back nervously and placed his hands behind his back, hoping that the Fire-god would still be grateful after doing this for him. Bren then groaned and got to his feet, looking quite disappointed at the fact that he was still quite injured. His eyes then settled on Tom and he frowned deeply, like the demon boy was the _last _person he wanted to see at the moment_._

"Lucitor." He said.

"You," Tom replied, before turning around and lifting his head. "Well, you're welcome. I got you back in his body and you're free to carry on with your plans of whatever. I don't expect a thank you, but...no, wait, I do. Talk to me again. I want to hear it. After all that, I want to hear."

"What the...who are you talking to?" Bren asked, looking genuinely confused. "Are you ignoring me?"

"One minute," Tom said, putting his hand up. "Well? Where's that thank you? After all I did, you-"

A sharp whistle from behind Tom caught his attention, and he turned to see _Bren_ holding _the _remote, his finger hovering over the button, a sight he had once dreaded but was now quite used to.

"I don't know what you're doing…" He started. "But I remember what just happened. And while I am the _tiniest _bit grateful that you brought me back into the light, that doesn't mean you get any special privileges, Lucitor. Nothing has changed. You don't get to go off doing whatever you want, or anything like that. Which includes talking without permission, or quite frankly talking at all. You-"

"Oh, give me a _fucking _break!" Tom swore, finally losing his temper. "You're the _tiniest _bit grateful? Are you kidding me?! I know that even when you're "possessed", you and the Fire-god are still different people, but even so, you should know just how much I risked and how much I accomplished so I could get to this point! Don't start that crap again after what I just did for you!"

Bren stared at the demon in surprise, no doubt shocked by his sudden rebellious nature, and his finger moved away from the device, intrigue over what he was going to say next clouding all other thoughts.

"Sneaking away from that green-eyed fool." Tom began listing. "Breaking into the dungeon to release the prisoners. Getting them all out. Searching the castle and finding Nishum. Bringing him back here while convincing that same green-eyed idiot that I wasn't planning anything bad. Talking to the Fire-god and making him agree with my plan. Having to listen to that story, which admittedly was pretty interesting. And then having to kill all those prisoners. All this just to bring you back." He stopped for a moment and caught his breath, before powering on again, still as angry as ever. "And now when you're back? When I completed my mission and did my duty to you, were you grateful? No! You're just-"

"Thank you." Bren sighed.

"..."

"..."

"...What?"

"Thank you, even though I'm sure that I'm not the one you wanted a thank you from." He repeated, before setting the remote down on the table. "I know just how much you despise me, Thomas. The constant glares you give me behind my back are proof enough of that. I'm sure you've never hated anyone in your life as much as me. But still, because you were worried about what would happen to the Underworld, that my death would cause it to spiral into a civil war, you actually sacrificed a great many things just to bring me back to this body. And so… I thank you for that. You're still going to hate me and want to kill me. And I still hate you. But just this once...thanks."

"You…" Tom started. "You know I was doing this only for-"

"An idiot could see it," Bren said. "What, you really think I believe that you were doing this for me? Hell no." He chuckled. "I'm sure you ran off in the first place to sabotage everything. Isn't that right?"

"What...I…"

"Yeah. It is." Bren said. "Now, if you could be so kind, go off and kill the rest of the inmates, and bring another useless person here so I can heal myself. _Again. _And don't try anything like you did an hour ago. I'll be watching. Don't ask how, but I will."

"..."

"_Now," _Bren growled, returning to his demanding self in a second. Tom reared back slightly from this before submitting to this. He turned around and was about to leave, but couldn't stop himself from asking one last question.

"Your backstory…" He started. "About how you killed your family. Is that true, or just something the insane one made up?"

"...It's the truth." Bren said, after some hesitation. "Although personally, _I _wouldn't have killed them. There would be no point." He turned around. "No-"

But by then, Tom had already left, and Bren paused before sighing again.

"Alright." He said.

"I think it's time we go to phase two."

**End chapter 23**

**A/N: Yeesh, what a chapter. A mess, as usual. We got shown the problems occurring at the Temple, the utterly useless note that "Bren" left there for no reason other than the fact that he wanted to (like most things he did), finally a few riots that have been talked about, Eclipsa's sleeping problems, a few more insights on how life in the Underworld is with Bren around, and a nice little thank you. And those two still despise each other. This little incident changes nothing. **

**Mostly.**

**But next chapter we'll be going back to Janna and what she's going to do with that finger she took from the parking lot, as well as a few moments from Star and Marco. Maybe a little visit.**

**Until...next time.**


	25. Chapter 24: The Awful truths of Earthni

**Aflame **

**Chapter 24**

**The Awful truths of Earthni**

Janna was having a _very _good day.

And yes, this is likely a surprising thing to hear. After all, not a single person other than her in all of Earthni could have the same said of them. There wasn't a shred of happiness in the streets, in private, or anywhere else you could think of. The mood was dark and gloomy, and would stay that way for quite a while.

But not Janna.

True, the day had _started _off as bad. She had to deal with the fallout of the explosion like everyone else. Her house's windows were shattered, of course, and there were a few holes in the sides of it where microscopic pieces of rock landed, eventually coming to rest in her living room couch, an inch from her parents' faces.

And then after _that, _she went to the meeting, said some stuff, came up with a plan about how to invade the Underworld, and then went home. But later on, trying to get sleep was impossible. Everyone was freaking out, but because of her injuries, which were still a long way away from healing, Janna was unable to safely go outside. Or assist her parents in cleaning anything up. So, she did what she did best: Do things she wasn't supposed to. Early in the morning, she snuck out of the house, planning on visiting the Monster Temple. It took hours to get there, but not just because of her wounds and crutches. No, she was carrying the gigantic book that Tom had loaned her, filled with all sorts of juicy demon secrets. She was doing this because she had been interrupted a while back, when she was explaining a bunch of things from the book to Eclipsa. But then the whole thing with Marco happened, then the explosion, and well...you get the idea.

But now she intended to finish that discussion they were having. Janna was fully aware that the Queen probably had a lot on her hands at the moment, but if anything, she could talk to Globgor. She had already seen several of his soldiers, after all, patrolling the streets and alerting people that the Temple was open to all who seemed sanctuary. Sadly, none of them offered to carry her book for her, but Janna didn't care. As long as there was _someone _there that could help her with this so they could brainstorm a way to finally fix all their problems, she'd be just fine. Heck, even Archibald would do, who could just write some stuff down for them.

But…

Then _more _terrible things happened. She arrived there and started chatting with Globgor, only for the news of the mess going down at the hospital to come in. Long story short, Globgor left, Janna followed him, saw Bren get beaten to a bloody paste, and took his finger which had been lying conveniently on the ground. All in all, a total disaster.

Or at least it _would _have been.

Because unbeknownst to the others, the finger that Janna snatched was more important than any of them could have imagined at the moment. She was back at her house now, in her room, with a tray full of random liquids and objects splayed out in front of her. Some were filled with blood. Some were filled with things any person could pick up a grocery store. And some contained liquids that Janna was sure were the last in existence.

And she _definitely _intended to put them to good use.

And in the center of it all?

Why, the finger she picked up, of course, lying on a miniature metal pedestal with a microscope hanging over it. The same finger that Janna had been studying and looking at for almost an hour, picking off the samples of it that she needed. It had taken a while, but eventually, she got all the pieces she required. A stray hangnail there, a small slice of flesh here, a bone shard way over there, all very standard stuff. It was all part of her master plan to save the town and possibly find a way to defeat Bren, whether he had green eyes or not.

And she really needed to get on that.

For Janna had a secret you see. (Well, several, but we're talking about one here.)

It had been one she had been keeping for a very long time (two days), and it was the hardest secret she ever had to keep in her life.

But enough with the vague descriptions, let's let the words speak for themselves.

"So." She said, seemingly to no one in particular. "You're back. And don't try to deny it, I can feel you're here. Say something."

"**Ah…" **The Fire-god said. "**You **_**are **_**good at sensing me. Even the first time, before I introduced myself, you somehow managed to-"**

"Quit it," Janna demanded. "The fact that you're here at all means something happened that involves your whole "successor process". Are you going to try to offer me that job again? I told you I'd think about it after you gave me that not-so-cryptic warning to keep silent about our meeting." She sighed and turned back to the finger. "Still can't believe I'm even talking with you after all you've done…"

"**Really? Now **_**that's **_**surprising." **The Fire-god said. "**I thought a person like you would be jumping for joy at the opportunity to work with a god, no matter what god that may be."**

"Believe it or not, but I actually care about this town and my friends," Janna said. "One of which you've caused great damage to, the other you've killed several of. I knew a few of those knights that went to the mansion that day, you know. Made acquaintances with them when I visited Mewni. They were weird, and boastful, and prideful, but I still liked them. The way they did things and how they handled problems. And now they're dead because of you. I'm still not happy about that."

The Fire-god sighed. "**Is this Janna I'm talking to right now, or just an imposter?" **He asked rhetorically. "**I told you before. Bren blew them up, not me."**

"And who was possessing him at the time, I wonder?"

"**It wasn't like that. Not like how it was with Marco. He was still…" **It started, before groaning. "**I'm not doing this again, Janna. We can argue all we want later. You're right. I'm here because there has been an update on the whole successor thing."**

"Then give it to me or stop wasting my time," Janna said. "You know what I told you the first time you came running to me like a child, begging for help. If you're going to visit me, I want those visits to be quick and easy."

"**You disrespectful…" **The Fire-god started. "**First off, I did not come to you begging for help. I merely came to offer you an opportunity, assuming you're still alive by the end of all of this, and in the unlikely chance that Bren fails to kill you all."**

"Playing every side, aren't you?"

"**No. Just planning for every possibility." **The Fire-god said. "**You should understand why I would do something like that. You like to be in complete control of the situation too. Isn't that the **_**real **_**reason you got yourself involved in this mess again, instead of sitting home and doing nothing? Because you want things to be sitting comfortably under your thumb again?"**

"There's more to it than that." Janna scoffed. "If you knew me as well as you claimed, then maybe your retorts would hit a little closer to home. But you don't, so they're not. Next time at least _try _to listen to what I'm saying before you attempt a snappy comeback."

"**...Enough of this." **The Fire-god said. "**This is the news I came to deliver, Janna. Bren is no longer under the green-eyed state. He is back to his "old" self and is continuing his plans."**

"Really? That didn't last very long…" Janna mumbled.

"**Yes, well, he was vastly inferior to his predecessor/successor." **The Fire-god said. "**It didn't take long for him to lose control of the situation. And by "didn't take long", I mean he never had control in the first place."**

"And why should I care about this?" Janna asked. "I mean, I'm probably going to call Eclipsa soon and tell her that now that I know, _from an anonymous source of course, _but why does this have anything to do with you wanting to pick me as a successor?"

"**Because it means that the position is no longer open as of this very moment." **The Fire-god said. "**I'm sure you knew that when Bren's eyes turned green and he was no longer possessed, that a slot opened up for the title of **_**immediate **_**successor. However, bury any emotions you had about that, as it is no longer an option. Just thought I'd let you know, in case you were about to ask if you could have the job."**

"Okay, one, I actually didn't know that. I was too busy with this finger. Two, even if I did, I wouldn't care. I'm still on the fence about this whole thing. Three, I would never ask you for the job. A job like that, something that will become a lifetime of work, is not a job I want to have to ask for. It's one I want to earn, if anything. Once I earned it, you can appear to me and say that I have done enough to get it." Janna requested. "And then I will make my decision if I want it or not."

"**...What?" **The Fire-god asked. "**What do you mean earn? The fact that I offered it to you at all already means you earned it. There is nothing else you have to do besides say yes."**

"That's not true." Janna pointed out. "I also have to survive the crusade of your _current _proxy, may I remind you. And if I remember correctly, I'm not that high on his list of favorite people. In fact, I'm right at the bottom, down there with Star and Moon."

"**That can be changed." **The Fire-god said. "**If you say yes, I can give you immortality. Make you immune to dying. You can still get injured, but your soul will never leave this plane of existence."**

"So then Bren can cut me into a thousand little pieces and I'll be conscious and aware of it the whole time _and _forever afterward?" Janna scoffed, before taking a deep breath. "No thank you. Immortality is overrated. If I wanted to make myself immortal, I would have done it when magic was still around. I had plenty of opportunities after all…"

"**Quite." **The Fire-god said. "**But that can be remedied. I can simply make a new body for you, just like that. Easy as pie. You will be brought back with no sign of your former injuries, and everything will be fine."**

"Except for my mental state," Janna said. "If that's how you're gonna do things, I'm going to end up like Marco. Traumatized and sitting in the dark, haunted by the pain and agony that _you _put him through."

"**He'll be fine...long term." **The Fire-god claimed. "**All he needs is some love from his precious Star. She's the antidote for his whole mental mess. He hasn't seen her in a very long time, and he needs his fix."**

"A very long time? Dude, it's been a day or two since he last saw her, at _most, _to my knowledge." Janna said.

"**Like I said, a very long time." **The Fire-god replied. "**But you needn't worry about Marco. He will be alright. He may be a husk of his former self right now, but all he needs to do is get back into it, hang out with Butterfly, beat Bren, all the things that will make him happy. He spent sixteen years in the most dangerous dimension in this multiverse, after all. If **_**that **_**didn't traumatize him permanently, then nothing **_**here **_**will."**

"Not so sure about that," Janna said. "From what I heard, what you put him through was straight torture. Something no one should be able to survive. And he didn't. He died because of this, _beaten _to death, and I'm pretty sure that his experiences in the Neverzone, dangerous as it may be, don't add up to _literally dying."_

"**Oh, don't be so dramatic." **The Fire-god said. "**Hundreds of humans throughout history have died and been brought back through magical means. And some of their deaths were even more violent and gruesome than his."**

"But were they as long?" Janna asked. "As drawn-out?"

"**...Some of them." **The Fire-god replied.

"And did they recover eventually, happy as could be?"

"_**...Some of them."**_ The Fire-god repeated. "**And I believe Marco will too. He is strong enough to get through this one way or another. It's like I said. all he needs is some time. Some therapy. The things that make him happy. Yes, the memories will remain, and the nightmares may never stop...but say that every day he wakes up from those nightmares lying next to Star, and instantly he's cured for the entire day. Simple as that. There will never be a perfect permanent solution. But there will always be ways for his life to become normal again."**

"_Really," _Janna said, slamming some vials down on her desk and almost cracking them. "Well, riddle me this, mister everything's-going-to-get-better, what if Star _dies? _He'll be waking up to nobody! Nobody to comfort him! Nobody to help him! Nobody to do anything! You're just hoping for the best here! Really, at this point, and I hate saying this but this is the conclusion I've come to, the odds that _both _of them will survive this little crisis is getting increasingly thin by the day." She explained. "If Star dies, then it's like I told you. Marco stays depressed forever and will only get worse. And that's the end of his story. But if Marco dies, _again, _then Star will likely go on a rampage before breaking down. I'm sure you saw her at the hospital. She was prepared to stab a doctor with a _needle _just so she could leave and destroy the Sanctuary." Janna sighed and placed both her hands on her desk before leaning back in her chair, staring blankly up at the ceiling. "So I personally think that the end result of this situation will either be Marco going into a depressed downwards spiral to which he can never return from, or Star going on a rampage before likely crying nonstop for the rest of her life. Or Bren just kills us all. So three options. But...that's what I think this is going to come to."

"**...This is interesting." **The Fire-god said. "**This is **_**unlike **_**you. I cannot remember the last time you got so involved in a problem. When you were worried. Look at you! You're practically sweating over this! It's incredibly interesting how after all the things you've seen, that **_**this **_**crisis is what caused you to finally and really put yourself out there, instead of constantly standing by the sidelines. I...I'm not sure I can get used to this...although it would certainly be a better personality for you to adopt if you become a successor."**

"Is that right?" Janna asked. "Well, I'm going to give you the same answer I gave all those Royals. There are only so many people you can watch die and buildings burn before you decide that "you have to stop this. You have to get involved. Otherwise, the next person lying dead on the street will be you". That is my mindset. Maybe this is unlike me. But I'm only doing it because it's necessary. I've lived in this town my whole life. I'm not going to see it turned to ash by someone like _him."_

"**Then **_**agree**_ **to be my successor." **The Fire-god said. "**How about this, Janna. I'm going to make you a bit of a deal. One that will work out for **_**everyone **_**except Bren. He is getting tiresome after all. Even if I manage to repossess him...our little partnership might not last. New allies must be chosen. New followers must become full-on worshippers. This dimension must become the epicenter for my new church, so my existence can continue-"**

"Get to the damn point." Janna requested. "I already know what you want out of Earth. Tell me your deal and be done with it."

"**Fine." **The Fire-god said. "**If you agree to become my successor, right here, right now, effective **_**immediately, **_**then I'll find a way to get rid of Bren for you and restore order to the Underworld. He is in a possessed state. His injuries are gone. But none of that matters when you have an army against him, as you know. I can tell you where he is and how to get to him easily, and you can call Globgor and he can take a group of knights to wipe Bren out once and for all. Then Tom will be free, the Underworld will go back to normal, and you all live happily ever after."**

"..."

"**So...what do you...say?" **The Fire-god asked. "**It's a pretty good deal. The best one you're going to get. All you have to do is spread my word across the Earth and get me more worshippers, and all the problems in Earthni will be solved. The town you've lived in your whole life will be saved, and-"**

"Why are you so desperate all of a sudden?" Janna asked. "Has something happened that's beyond your control? Have you gone too far with this whole thing?"

"**I'm just beginning to see it as unnecessary." **The Fire-god said. "**Bren's destruction of Earthni was a necessary evil, I thought, at the start of all this. But I personally believe that it is dragging on for too long. I wanted Bren to take care of quickly and easily, and I gave him all the materials needed. But he wanted to make it last, and I was unable to convince him to do otherwise. But now it's clear to me that he does have full control of all situations like he claimed he would, even when I am in control. His mistakes and fight at the hospital perfectly proved this. There was no good reason for him to go there other than to fuel his ego and show off his power. And that was one of the last straws for me. And when I was distracted, his original self managed to take control. And then **_**that **_**led to a whole mess of events that I'd rather not recount here, even if, again, I managed to get him back."**

"And the point of all this…?"

"**The **_**point **_**is that I am growing bored and tired." **The Fire-god said. "**I just want this to end. I just want a new successor. Simple as that."**

"Then _end _it, you idiot!" Janna snapped. "What do you mean you're tired? Are you sad that this is taking too long? Angry that Bren's genocide of everyone in Earthni isn't meeting your time slot? Well, poor pitiful you. You have the power to stop all this. _Use _it. Do that, and I _might _consider becoming Bren's successor." She shook her head and calmed her nerves, disturbed by her own outburst. "If you wanted this to end, you could have done so at any time. So stop whining, wave your hand, and put a stop to all this nonsense so we can rebuild and you can go back to being a dick!"

"**So angry...such a temper when you truly-"**

"Sorry, not sorry. But I'm getting annoyed with your apparent stupidity." Janna said. "Well? What are you waiting for? Kill Bren yourself or free Tom's parents and let _him _kill him. Problem solved. This really isn't that complex."

"**Let Tom kill him?" **The Fire-god said. "**Are you sure that's what you want to happen? You really don't know what's going on in the Underworld, do you? Because it's split in the middle. The ones who support Bren and the ones who don't. And if Tom kills him, a civil war will erupt. One that could spell the end for the entire sub-dimension."**

"They're demons," Janna said. "They'll bounce back. According to Tom, demons have come back from being wiped out to levels as low as ten. I don't know how that works, with the small gene pool and the inbreeding and all that, but it's happened before and it can happen again here. A Civil war won't wipe out Demonkind. Just inconvenience then for a few hundred years."

"**Maybe." **The Fire-god said. "**But the Underworld will be lost. There will be no more kingdoms, no more Royals, no more castles, no more nothing. Any leaders will be warlords ruling over small groups through the use of fear. Bases will be hastily constructed and have to be rebuilt every couple of days. Battles will be fought between groups of less than twenty, with no clear victor by the end of it. It will essentially be a complete restart for the entire sub-dimension, one that will take **_**thousands**_ **of years to evolve from."**

"...I mean, ruling through fear is nothing new. Heck, tons of people already do it on Earth, and they've stayed in power for decades." Janna said. "But fine. Maybe you do make a bit of sense with your other points. Maybe Tom won't kill Bren because he already knows all this. But why would those morons even want to follow him in the first place? What exactly do they get out of listening to the orders of a genocidal maniac that would kill any number of them as long as it means he gets what he wants?"

"**Some demons didn't like how it was before." **The Fire-god explained. "**They were tired of being ruled over people that got the job simply because they were born into a specific family. But then Bren came along. He took the leadership position by force and threw out the previous kings and queens. Some demons respect that. Some just like that a Royal isn't in charge. And some don't care at all, as long as it means they don't have to pay tax or basically worship the crown anymore. They are a lot of reasons why demons with no power would support Bren. Yes, he would be willing to kill them...but in the face of all those other pros, they'll take what they can get."**

"Great. So I'm guessing there is _no _hope of the Lucitors getting their positions back even if Bren died. Too many people like this new way and will refuse to go back to how it was." Janna assumed. "But does that have to end in a civil war? Can't they just let the demons who hate the Royals...screw off to another part of the Underworld to make their own kingdom? What's the problem with that? They'll effectively be destroying themselves after all. A kingdom run by those demons who have no idea how to lead or how to command a military force...they'll be running back to the Lucitors after their society falls apart in a year or so."

"**Ah, you make point, Janna." **The Fire-god admitted. "**But Demonkind would much rather fight than come up with a peaceful solution. If you gathered representatives from every class of demon into a room and threw that proposal at them, they would laugh in your face before tearing you apart. And then lunge at each other. There is much animosity between them, after all. They'd all jump at the chance to completely wipe out their enemies at the same time."**

"...You know what, I've had about enough of this," Janna said. "This conversation is getting nowhere. I don't believe you at all when you say that you'll stop Bren's invasion of Echo Creek if I agree to your crazy deal, so you don't have to bother with that. I'm an expert at lying, as well as an expert at detecting them. Even a god can't hide that little tone in the back of their voice, a small amount of nervousness that the person they're talking to isn't going to believe them."

"**...Okay. I tried to be nice. I tried to get you to do the right thing. So just...take the deal."**

"What?" Janna asked. "What are you talking about? Don't order me around like that, I still need to-"

"**TAKE THE DAMN DEAL." **The Fire-god demanded, and Janna flinched back in surprise, shocked that it had deviated from its normal calm tone. "**DO IT. I HAVE WAITED LONG ENOUGH, AND I AM DONE WITH SMALL TALK. ACCEPT MY DEAL AND BE DONE WITH IT. DON'T THINK YOU CAN REFUSE ME AND GET AWAY WITH IT, **_**HUMAN."**_

"Now hold on," Janna said, trying not to show her newfound fear of the entity. "You told me that this was my choice. That I could decide whether or not I wanted this. Are you seriously going back on that-AHHHH!" She screamed, feeling a sharp sudden pain in her left arm, right underneath one of her casts. A few cracking sounds were heard as the pain intensified, and Janna grit her teeth as she fell to her knees, writhing in agony.

"**Oh my, am I doing that? **_**So **_**sorry." **The Fire-god said dryly. "**You think you can undermine a god? You think you can just tell me to go screw myself? Do you have any idea what I can do? What I've **_**done? **_**I've had people tortured for thousands of years for saying things ten times less severe than the way you just casually addressed me. I have been patient with you because I want you as my successor, I have explained things and argued and even talked like a normal fucking person, but now that time is done. Take the deal, Janna, or I'll break every bone in your body just like those knights did to Bren."**

"Stop…" Janna groaned. "Please...I can't-"

Before she could say anything else, her right _leg _exploded in pain, twisting a different direction and causing her to fall onto her back. She screamed in pain again, sweat rolling down her forehead, and began to cry out, wanting someone, _anyone, _to be there with her.

"MOM!" She shouted. "DAD! HELP ME! HELP ME, I'M-"

"**Don't bother." **The Fire-god scoffed. "**I soundproofed the room. Locked it as well. They can't hear a thing, and no one can interrupt us. And if they try...well, I don't think we have to worry about that. When was the last time your parents came to your room anyway? A month ago? **_**Two **_**months ago? A **_**year,? **_**I'm sure they won't be visiting you anytime soon, so you best get comfortable, Janna, because those bones I just hit are only two of the big ones. We still have over two hundred to go."**

"What…" Janna groaned. "Why do you want _me _as your successor so bad again? Why not use Star...or Meteora...or hell, Tom! Why not Tom? He's the prince of the Underworld! Do you know how much influence he has? He could have converted hundreds of demons into following a religion based around you! And considering how long some of them live, it could have easily lasted for thousands of yearRERRSS!" She shrieked, as another terrific crack rang through the air, this time from the inside of her skull. Janna felt like fifty migraines struck her all at once, situated in every side of her head. She could feel blood running down her nose as the pain intensified, leaving her almost unable to speak.

"**No." **The Fire-god said calmly. "**You are better. Tom may have influence, but he is too well known. Too famous. I don't want that. For my next successor, I wasn't someone inconspicuous. Someone who doesn't stand out in a crowd but still has many useful abilities. Someone like you, Janna. Someone who knows how to control people and get into their heads without them noticing. You've done it before, and you're going to do it again."**

With that, Janna opened her mouth in shock, but with no sound coming out as her fingers twisted backward, her fingernails hitting her wrist. She looked to the side and saw her closet, which contained a safe that held many different types of potions and weird Demon Magic spells that she had brewed over the past few months. One of which was the one that permanently got rid of the Fire-god in a person's mind. The one she had intended to use on Bren, but never got the chance to. But she could use it now. And then she could use the healing potions she had in there to fix her recently broken bones. But she had to hurry, as the only ones she was able to make were the kind that had to be used less than ten minutes after the to-be-healed wound.

So Janna rolled into her back, then her stomach, and then kept rolling as she made her way towards the safe.

"**Don't think you can get rid of me that easily." **The Fire-god said, before twisting both of her ankles and fracturing a rib. Janna's eyes widened even further and her vision darkened as she nearly passed out from the pain, but the brief moment of shock she got from it allowed her to keep moving forward, although she knew it wouldn't last long enough before she reached the safe.

"**This can stop at any time." **The Fire-god reminded her. "**I know you can still speak. It's just you can't scream because your brain is overloading from the pain. But I have not damaged your vocal cords. Just say the word. Just say yes, and all this goes away."**

"Ple-please… Janna groaned. "I'm not sure if I can even _be _your successor."

"**Oh? And why is that? Don't have the guts? Feel like it will be too much responsibility to bear?"**

"No…" Janna said. "But there are other beings out there besides you that I've made deals to. Other gods in the multiverse. It's how I got all my knowledge of the occult. How I got a hold of all these formerly magical artifacts. I've practically pledged my allegiance to someone else!"

"**Well, that can be easily remedied." **The Fire-god said, suspecting that this was all a lie. "**I'll simply tell these gods to get lost, and that you're my property now. For you see Janna, any deals you made with them, you would have made with normal magic since it was easier. But since that is destroyed, those deals are no longer applicable to your life. The gods in charge of them have no power over you, and if they try anything, I'll stop them. Think of it as me being a mob boss, and you a "made-man". If someone from another "family" attacks you, it means **_**war."**_

Janna paused and thought about this for a moment, before wondering if she could come up with any more excuses to get this to stop. The whole thing about making deals with other entities was actually true, and all of them were made back when she was young and stupid, at the age of six, when she found the remnants of a spellbook that gave instructions on how to summon a god. It had been one of her biggest fears for a while, but after the destruction of magic, she thought she was safe.

However, now that she knew gods could and _did _survive that little apocalypse, the fear was coming back with a vengeance. Ironically, in the form of an entirely _different _god. But she was sure that at least one wouldn't be too happy if she practically sold her soul to someone else, and if it arrived and started quarreling with the Fire-god…

Well, Earth's total annihilation would be putting it lightly as the aftermath.

And she had to make sure the Fire-god knew that.

"You don't understand." She said, bracing herself at any moment in case another one of her bones broke. "This being I made a deal with isn't some low-tier demigod. They're someone like you. Someone who can blow up galaxies and manipulate people to the highest degree and create entirely new forms of magic on the fly! And if you survived with all of your powers intact, I'm sure they did too! Even if they don't use demon magic! And when they arrive here-"

"**We'll fight, and your precious little word will be destroyed? Yeah, I don't think so." **The Fire-god said. "**Gods may be greedy, and mean, and selfish, and so many other words that you humans would insult one another with, but we're not stupid. If there's a fight, it will be far, far away from this planet. We're not going to risk destroying it. The rest of the galaxy? Eh, I'm sure Earth could survive a good long while without it. Or at least humanity. But the point is that there is **_**no point **_**in drawing that card, Janna. Another god coming here won't change a thing. Either it'll be after you, or I will. And even if you die, I'm sure it will haunt you to the grave and beyond for whatever deal you made with it. Because something like that...that allowed you to obtain all this...well, I'm sure you must have promised a lot. You were a pretty stupid kid, weren't you?"**

"Didn't think it all the way through…" Janna said, finally reaching the safe after what felt like an eternity of crawling. She weakly lifted her one good arm up and attempted to punch in the code, but just like she feared, and practically expected, her arm twisted around to the point where one second the back of her palm was facing her, and now the front was. She didn't even feel her pain this time; her arm simply dropped and she felt herself starting to pass out, blood still dripping down her nose as her head hit the ground with a _clunk. _

"**Oh no, I don't think so." **The Fire-god said, forcing her eyes open and preventing her from entering her subconscious. "**So that makes a little over fifteen bones I've broken...we're not even a quarter done. This can last all day, Janna. I can keep you alive just like Bren. And then I can heal your bones and do it all over again**. **You're not getting out of this, so you may as well just accept the inevitable and-"**

"How…" Janna said softly.

"**Hmm?"**

"How are you doing this…" She asked. "I thought...you told me...that you couldn't interfere with the real world like this. Only people's minds. How...how can you do this to me if the rules should be holding you back?"

"**Oh, did I say that? Yeah, I guess I said that." **The Fire-god mused. "**That was a total lie, something that you're so fond of telling. I can affect the "real" world just as much as an imaginary one, Janna. It's not hard."**

"That's a lie…" She groaned. "If you could do that...you wouldn't need Bren in the first place...you could just appear in the sky, yell "worship me" and instantly you'd have thousands of people flocking to build churches for you. If this was about followers...you'd have done that."

"**...Maybe." **The Fire-god said. "**But I suppose you're right. In a way. Normally I don't like interfering this much, as it's too difficult without a proper method. Luckily, I have one for you. You agreed to allow me into your mind to talk to you. The whole reason any of this is possible is because you made that deal. You only assumed that I would use it to simply **_**communicate **_**with you, and nothing else. Obviously, that has brought us to where we are now."**

"Nahhh…" Janna said, now attempting to punch in the code with her knuckles. "I knew...you would try something. Which is why I put...multiple spells in this safe." She coughed and imputed the last number, resulting in the safe swinging open and revealing dozens of vials filled with all sorts of glowing liquids. "Just never thought that you'd go to this length…"

"**Hm. And here you are. The potions." **The Fire-god said. "**Or the one you have to drink, at least. Because I believe there are multiple versions. One you have to speak aloud like the others, one you have to wave your hands around, and then this. Of course, this will only purge me for a **_**short **_**while, but should give you enough time to perform the **_**real **_**one, right?" **It sighed. "**Isn't that exactly what you're thinking?"**

"..."

"**I thought so." **The Fire-god said, taking in her silence with a hint of pride. "**But how do you plan to do that with no functional limbs? Heck, how do you even plan to pick up that vial? Or get out of this room? How do you think you can get out of this one without my he-"**

"Can you just be quiet…" Janna moaned, leaning forward and grabbing the vial, which was thankfully in the bottom shelf, with her teeth. She then started rolling back over to her desk, intending to hit the top against one of the chair legs to dislodge the cork.

"**What are you doing? You are aware that I could break your spine at any moment, yes?" **The Fire-god asked rhetorically. "**Why are you so persistent in achieving the impossible?"**

"Because I don't want to become the slave for your whole religion…" Janna replied. "It may be a surprise to you...but I don't want to be some great follower for a god."

"**A lie. In the old days, even before you came across Star, you would have sold your soul to Satan if it meant getting a magical position higher than any normal person." **The Fire-god said. "**And now I'm giving you the chance to become the **_**top disciple **_**for me, with all its benefits! I can put a mark on you that will prevent any other extra-dimensional entity from hurting you! I can give you powers similar to the ones Bren has! I can make you and your family the richest to ever exist! I can do almost anything for you, give you abilities beyond your wildest dreams, and you're saying that I should leave and let you throw all that away?!"**

"Yes," Janna said. "Because if all this was the cost, then I don't want it."

"**All this? What are you...oh. Oh, I get it." **The Fire-god scoffed. "**You're still angry at me. Because of all the people that have died in Bren's crusade. Because of how it's hurt you and the town. Well here's my advice for you: Get over it. A hundred billions things ten times worse than what's happened to your town occur every day across the multiverse, and that's not even an exaggeration. But the people there don't get angry about it. They tighten up their stockings, grab a broom, clean the mess up, and move on. They don't get vengeful towards the being who did it, the one they know they can't harm. There wouldn't be any point besides pettiness."**

"_Well, _maybe those people are used to it, but we aren't!" Janna countered. "That's a dumb point to make. Don't compare other dimensions problems with ours. This isn't a competition! Just because they're suffering worse than we are doesn't mean life should still suck, and that I don't have a right to get angry about it!"

"**Perhaps." **The Fire-god said. "**But you're never going to get anywhere in life if you don't learn to let go of things."**

"I'm an expert at doing that when it conveniences me, actually." Janna pointed out. "But you've gone too far. You may not have done this directly, but I'm sure you knew what was going to happen. And it doesn't matter how much power you give me, I'm not submitting to the person who caused the death and mental snapping of one of my best friends and the _near-death_ of literally...all the rest!" She shouted, finally managing to pop the cork off of the vial. "Finally. Say goodbye."

"**Have you forgotten what I said earlier?" **The Fire-god asked. "**How do you intend to do anything after this? If you banish me, I won't be able to heal your wounds. And while the soundproofing spell will be broken, it will be months if not years before all your bones are fully healed. And even then, they'll be...twitchy from time to time."**

"What am I going to do? You just gave me an answer." Janna growled. "If I get my parents up here fast enough, and tell them exactly what to do, they can set up the healing spell with Demon Magic. Bye-bye injuries, and bye-bye _you."_

"**So young. So naive. It's ironic almost, how much you remind me of Bren at times." **The Fire-god said. "**Because I'm going to tell you exactly what I told him. And you've heard this before, feel free to skip over it."**

"...Wait, are you talking to me with that last sen-"

"**No. Now, everyone that uses Demon Magic can only do so because I allow it." **The Fire-god explained. "**Including you. So if you cast a spell, but I don't want it's effects to take hold of you, then they won't. You won't be healed. You won't be saved. You'll be taken to the hospital and mended the old fashioned way. I don't think it would be that fun. You've already spent quite some time there. And nowadays, it's even less fun…"**

"Are you really _that _petty?!" Janna asked, growling it through gritted teeth. "That you wouldn't even let me heal myself? I know most gods are jerks, but come on! Taking revenge on _one _mortal because they won't accept your little offer! Aren't you...just making a fool out of yourself? Making yourself look bad?"

"**All gods are ridiculously petty, as you said. This is nothing. If anything, I'm being **_**less **_**petty than most of them." **The Fire-god said. "**So now I'm going to start begging you. Just **_**take the deal, **_**Janna. I don't enjoy doing this to you. But there are so many more bones I could break before you fully manage to down that potion, several of which might paralyze you from the neck down."**

"..."

"**..."**

"So that's it, then?" Janna asked. "Should I just purposefully spill this potion, if there's no point in even _trying_ to drink it?"

"**You could do that." **The Fire-god said. "**Or you could try. Paralyzation afterward, of course, but hey, at least you stuck to your guns and refused to surrender. You can remember that for the rest of your life any time you futilely try to move your limbs. And don't bother with a healing spell, because again, I control it all. You'll be stuck like that forever, and your tombstone will say, "here lies Janna Ordania, paralyzed for most of her life. All because of a few deals gone wrong. But hey, at least she refused to-"**

"Okay, I get it," Janna growled. "I won't drink the potion."

"**Really? And after all the effort you went just to get it?" **The Fire-god asked. "**Well, that was a sure waste of time. I can't say I'm not disappointed."**

"Shut it," Janna said. "If you were going to stop me anyways, then there would be no point. I'd just be causing _further _pain and torture."

"**True. And now…" **The Fire-god said. "**Have you accepted it? Have you reached your decision to become Bren's successor? There is no one better suited, no person better-"**

"Actually...I have a better idea." Janna said. "I want to...make a deal with you. How does that sound? I know you and the rest of the divine are _so _fond of your deals with mortals…"

"**A deal? I...okay. Go on…" **The Fire-god said, with a hint of intrigue in its voice.

"I suggest something else," Janna said. "I'll supply you with an alternate target, one who is even better suited than I am to be your successor. And in exchange, you will heal all my injuries. You will leave me alone forever. And...that's it. Nothing else. Just those two things, and I'll tell you someone who I think would make an even _better _successor than me."

The Fire-god scoffed. "**Is that so? Very well then. Tell me who would be better than you, Janna. Because I have looked over every person in this town, even the most useless ones. So remember that before you name someone, I've already looked over them and disregarded them entirely."**

"Noted," Janna said. "I propose...Ludo Avarius."

"**..."**

"..."

"**Ludo."**

"Yes."

"**Avarius."**

"_Yes."_

"**You...you...pahha...hahaha…HAHAHAHAHA!" **The Fire-god cackled, now totally out of control. Wherever it was, Janna was sure it was doubling over with laughter, completely unconcerned with her, and she rolled her eyes at the sheer display of arrogance. After a minute or so the howling died down, and the Fire-god spoke again, giggles present in it's every word. "_**Seriously**_**? Out of every person in the town, you pick...**_**him. **_**Ludo Avarius. Probably the most pathetic and useless person of them **_**all? **_**You had the entire town at your disposal, thousands of people, and **_**that's **_**the one you went with?"**

"Why don't you hear me out first?" Janna suggested. "I actually have several good points to make about him. Quite a few I'm sure you overlooked when you were quote on quote "looking through everyone in the town"."

"**...You know what? Fine. Humor me." **The Fire-god said. "**Make a good case for Avarius. But I can tell you that I only looked at **_**this **_**one for a few seconds because I knew of his past, and I knew of his failures, and I knew that if I gave him this position, that he would find **_**some **_**way to screw it all up in the end."**

"Only a few seconds, eh?" Janna asked. "Well, that certainly explains a few things. And you're right. Ludo's past is fraught with failures. But we really shouldn't define someone by their past acts _that _much. I think if you had taken a minute and considered things, you'd see that Ludo is actually a better choice than me."

"**I doubt that. Now explain before my amusement dies down."**

"Okay," Janna said. "First of all, Ludo has led people before. Groups of monsters. Armies of rats. The first one didn't turn out as well as the second one did, but he's had experience in the ruling position. He knows how to control people. How to get them to kneel down. If you make him your successor, I'm sure he could easily control the followers he gains, no matter how many of them there are."

"**An interesting point." **The Fire-god said. "**But there is a problem. He does not truly **_**care **_**for those followers. He treated those rats like slaves. The monsters were a little better, but they still suffered constant insults and sometimes even derogatory remarks. The only thing he had **_**ever **_**cared for that's been under his control is that giant bird and spider he's always had with him, and that's only because he **_**knows **_**they won't fight back no matter what, and subservience is like air to him. He wants to see it. So if he gains followers for me, he'll just lose them again treating them like they're all below him."**

"Technically, they would be, if he's the leader of that little cult." Janna pointed out. "But okay. You could just help him with that. After all, it should be your job. Telling your head follower what to do to spread the word or whatever. However, I have _another_ reason you should recruit him. I am sure this position involves many magical perks like it does with Bren. Ludo has had experience with magic before. If you want Bren's successor to be someone powerful and familiar with magic, even Demon Magic, Ludo is a much better choice than almost everyone in this town. He knows how magic works. How to use it. And I'm sure that with how small and fast he can be, that he would have no trouble gathering all the blood or objects needed for the rituals."

"**You're better." **The Fire-god said. "**If we're talking about stealing things here, then you're the best pickpocketer I've seen in the entire Western Hemisphere. You've pulled off thefts that shouldn't be physically impossible. Ludo may be small and fast, yes, but you're quick with your hands and perfect at slipping away unseen. And I favor that above small and fast. And by the way, whoever becomes my successor won't have to worry about **_**stealing **_**things in order to perform rituals, trust me. They will get special privileges when it comes to that kind of stuff. And one of them is that if they want it, they get it, no matter who says otherwise."**

"So I became your successor and asked for a device capable of killing gods, I would have that?" Janna asked slyly.

"**Don't be a smartass." **The Fire-god warned. "**But you will get anything you need for rituals."**

"Then perfect, Ludo won't have to worry about stealing," Janna said. "And now on to my next point for why you should pick him. With him, I'm sure you can get the whole monster village worshipping you right off the bat."

"**...Explain."**

"Look at it this way," Janna said. "Recently, Ludo has been bettering his friendship with his siblings. They don't hate him like they used to. Really, only his father and sorta his mother ever truly hated him. The former of which is dead and the latter of which is living...somewhere now."

"**That would be a random house in the monster village that was up for grabs…"**

"Great. Then they live there now." Janna said. "But now his siblings like him. They trust him. They'll believe him when he tells them something. So what if, say, he becomes your successor, shows them some tricks with Demon Magic, and convinces them to join his little religion of worshipping this Fire-god? It'll spread to the siblings, and they will spread it to the other monster children…" She explained. "...Who in turn will spread it to their parents once they see Demon Magic. Once they see that following this religion gives them all the power."

"**Gives them all the power?" **The Fire-god echoed. "**You make it sound like they would only do this to gain power over the town or something. Which is an act the Monsters would **_**never do. **_**Between the humans, Mewmans, and Monsters, they're the best of the three."**

"Maybe I worded that poorly," Janna admitted. "But the point is that it will spread through the village like wildfire. And then it will spread throughout the town, then the state, then the country, and then the world. All because of Ludo and his connections with his siblings."

"**Yeah...no." **The Fire-god said. "**That is going to be a lot harder than it looks. First off, the Royals hate me since they know that I was the one who cussed all this crap. And anyone who **_**doesn't **_**know about me will eventually. They're not going to let a religion dedicated to me and my magic spread through the town."**

"Hold on," Janna said. "Then why are you choosing _me, _you dolt?! I'm going to spread it _here_! How's it any different than Ludo doing it?"

"**Because they're scared of you." **The Fire-god said. "**You've stolen things from them more times than I can imagine. Sneaking into their castle, taking old, valuable furniture, precious relics, anything you set your sights on. No matter how many locks there are, no many how many guards, you always find a way to get it and they know it. And they **_**know **_**that you still have all their stolen goods."**

"Actually, no," Janna said. "I sold most of those things on the black market so I could buy _other _things to get stuff for my Demon Magic experiments. Those castles are easy to break into, but the places where the stuff I'm sacrificing are stored? Not so much. Easier to just get something else, sell it, and then buy it. I don't even know where most of that Royal stuff is right now. Europe, maybe."

"**Well, they still think you have it all and that you'll destroy it if they try to threaten you. That's why they haven't sent any guards or the police after you." **The Fire-god explained. "**They think it's safe for now, so there shouldn't be any reason to take any risk until the time is right."**

"Boy, will they be disappointed," Janna said. "But that's the reason? They're scared of me and will let me do whatever I want? Even if this was true, why would they even care about a new religion in the first place? They don't have to follow it. It's not like their castles will be taken over and converted into temples. Who cares?"

"**The taking over castles thing is the **_**exact **_**event that they would be worried about." **The Fire-god said. "**A religion takes time. It needs to grow. It needs to find its root and find a place to take hold. And this town is it. The Royals know how religion works on Earth. The slideshow Globgor gave them had twenty slides on Earth religions, customs, beliefs, and how to respect them so Earthni doesn't accidentally piss off a few billion people. And those Royals saw the capitals of those religions. Huge cities devoted entirely to it. So what if **_**Earthni **_**becomes one of those cities? What if the religion grows and grows to the point where it strangles everything out and all non-believers are forced to get out?"**

"That won't happen. They'll enact laws beforehand." Janna said. "The whole religion shouldn't interfere with government thing. Anyone who wants to worship you can worship you, but they have to keep their business out of formal affairs. Otherwise, it'll be complete chaos."

"**You know that won't happen." **The Fire-god said. "**The only people that will be allowed to use magic will be the believers, do you think the Royals are going to let that slide? No. They'll either join themselves or throw a hissy fit and **_**demand **_**that they get access to magic."**

"And if they do, you'll just deny them any spells?" Janna asked with disdain. "Like you said you would?"

"**No. The more people that use Demon Magic, the more sacrifices to me that are made. Yes, I will not accept those sacrifices in...**_**certain **_**circumstances, but most of the time I don't care and just take them. If they want to fight for who gets to make the most sacrifices, let them. As long as there's still a side believing in me in the end."**

"Of course," Janna said. "But let's go back to what I was trying to convince you of. Using Ludo as Bren's successor instead of me. Everything you just said was another giant sidetrack, and I'd like to finish this up before my ribs start stabbing my heart even _more_."

"**Are you **_**still**_ **going on about that?" **The Fire-god asked. "**You made a few points, ones that I might even consider good, but overall you still overshadow Ludo with your advantages. I am not going to choose him. He may have his siblings, he may have experience as a leader, but you are still superior. That is the plain truth, Janna. Now if you want your ribs to stop poking into your heart as you said, just say yes and get it over with! Like I've repeated a thousand times! Just say yes!"**

"...Okay. Piss off." Janna growled. "There. I said it. Piss off. I'm not going to be your pathetic successor. I'm not going to take over a religion devoted to the same being who made a mess of the town where I grew up and all my friends. I'm not going to spend my life praising this being along with a bunch of other blind morons who will likely be as stupid as Mina's followers were. I want to live an actual life. One that's _not _filled with you, or Bren, or revenge plots, or giant explosions ruining everything! Why can't you just…" She started, before sighing. "Why can't you just go to the other side of the world and choose someone else? Maybe it will spread faster from Earthni or whatever, but there are billions of people who will be extremely eager to gain those magic powers this position offers! Are you seriously telling me that _you, _a _god, _can't find one other person on Earth like me? On the entire damn planet?"

"**...Yes." **The Fire-god said. "**Because no other human on Earth has had the same magical experience you had. No one else is as knowledgeable in magic and how to control people at the same time. Those scientists that studied the town are brilliant, yes, but overall you still know more about this topic than them. You're better. End of discussion."**

"...Fine," Janna said.

"**For the love of, you have to-WAIT!" **The Fire-god exclaimed. "**You said **_**fine**_**? Does this mean you're actually going to take my deal? **_**Finally?"**_

"What? No." Janna scoffed. "Fine as in whatever. I don't care. You can say how I'm better than anyone else a million times over, you can try and bribe me, or torture me more, or do anything else like that, but the plain truth is that I will _never _say yes to you." She spat. "And I'm sure this isn't like me. But if you were even remotely human, you'd understand."

"**I'm more human than you know. And I understand perfectly." **The Fire-god said. "**Fine then. Fine! If it's torture you want, then it's torture you're going to get. Wanna know how much a broken femur hurts? LET'S FIND OU-"**

"..."

"**..."**

"What happened?" Janna asked. "Having second thoughts?"

"**No, I….how did she…?" **The Fire-god stuttered, suddenly sounding quite nervous. "**...Damn you. Damn you **_**all. **_**I...I have to go."**

"What? Right now?" Janna asked.

"**Yes."**

"And you're just going to leave me like this? Completely helpless with all four of my limbs broken?!"

"**Shut it, or I'll break a couple more before I leave." **The Fire-god said. "**And this is not over. I will get to you eventually. One way or another, everyone breaks in the end. It's only a matter of time, Janna. And I would suggest that you use that time wisely…"**

"Brilliant advice," Janna said sarcastically. "But can you at least turn me over or something? I think I'm starting to have trouble breathing like this."

…

"Hello? Are you there?" Janna asked, and realizing that the Fire-god was gone, she sighed.

"Okay. You can start talking now."

"..."

"..."

"_**Is he gone?"**_

"Yes," Janna said, trying to fight off an itch that was building on her nose. "He's gone. And shouldn't you already know that? You've been watching this whole thing."

"_**Yes. But I wanted to be absolutely sure. I don't want him knowing I'm here until the time is right."**_

"Fair enough," Janna replied. "So, I held up my end of the bargain. Now you do yours. Heal me."

"_**Very well. But remember, only the ones-"**_

"He administers to me right now, I know." Janna sighed. "It's gonna be forever before I heal everything else up. I still have months left of wearing this cast, and it's already the most uncomfortable thing in the world."

"_**You'll get used to it. Humans always seem to."**_

And with that, Janna grit her teeth as an otherworldly and invisible force began mending her bones back together, causing her to grit her teeth and whimper as she tried not to scream in pain. With the Fire-god gone, the soundproofing in her room had also vanished, and she did _not _need her parents coming up here right now. After a few seconds of this, the cracking stopped and she was able to feel her legs again, confirming that it had worked.

"_**There. It is done. Now to hold up your end of the bargain. Tell me who that fool brought back to life with my stolen energy. He has been hiding them from me, and I cannot detect them. But that time has passed. Tell me, now."**_

"Okay, okay," Janna said, scooting over to one of her crutches and pushing herself back to her feet. "Marco. Marco Diaz."

"_**Marco...Diaz."**_

"Yeah," Janna said. "If you need, I can give you the address so-"

"_**Not needed. I have encountered Marco before, in the Neverzone. Although he will not remember. But that is irrelevant. Perhaps I should go and pay him a visit."**_

"Yeah...you do that," Janna said. "But one question. What are you going to do to him?"

"_**What shall I do to him? Nothing, I suppose. I merely wish to speak with him at this time. That is all. Unless he does something to make me angry, I shall not harm him in any way. He does not need to be involved in this any more than he already is. None of you do. Once I talk with Marco, I will finish what he tried to start, back in purgatory."**_

"And that is…?" Janna asked.

"_**Why, killing the Fire-god, of course."**_

"But if you two fight, then the releasing energies could devastate the entire solar system," Janna said, with some caution. "If you're going to do that, could you at least do it in another galaxy?"

"_**Relax, Ordania. You will not be harmed."**_

"I'm more worried about the town," Janna said.

"_**Then I will dispose of him quickly and ensure that your little town is not harmed. But no promises when it comes to that. The only thing I can promise is that you will be alive by the end of this, one way or another. That was our agreement."**_

"Hardly," Janna said, sitting in her chair and letting out a soft groan as the aches in her back faded. "I wanted you to place protection spells on Star, Marco, Eclipsa, Globgor, and everyone else I care about. But you claimed that that "wasn't how deals work". Alive or not, I don't want them to die by the time this is all over."

"_**Then you will have to make sure that they don't die yourself. And now, I shall be leaving. I am not a simple babbler like that Fire-freak, and I will not be associated with ones either. Goodbye, Janna. And remember, do not inform anyone of this. You can make all the deals you want, try to find all the loopholes, but you signed the contract."**_

"..."

"_**So don't do anything stupid."**_

"I won't," Janna said, but by then the entity was already gone. Janna's face dropped as she sat there in silence, thinking to herself. After what felt like an hour of just going over everything that had happened in the _past _hour, she sighed and turned back to her desk, finger and all.

* * *

Today was also a very special day, for a very different reason.

At least for one person.

Two people?

Okay, one person, and another who could be considered a _shell _of a former person. And in case you don't who we're already talking about it, that would be Marco Diaz and Star Butterfly, who have both received some of the best news in their lives: After what felt like months of being apart, even though it had really been no more than a day or so, they were finally going to visit each other again.

So as you can imagine, they were both very excited. Star externally, shifting on her bed as she waited for Marco to arrive, and Marco internally, keeping his stone-faced look while his heart was beating twice as fast out of excitement. He was currently on his way to the hospital inside the Diazes car, which was being driven by Angie. Rafael had chosen to stay home to clean up their driveway a bit, namely the remains of Eclipsa's car and the boulder that lay on top of it, so it was just them for the moment.

And if there was any word to describe the situation, it was _awkward._

"So, Marco…" Angie started, barely catching her son's attention. "Do you want me to come in with you when you visit Star, or would you like to wait outside?"

"...You can come in if you like, mom." Marco deadpanned. "I don't think Star will mind either way. I'm sure she'll be happy to see you."

"Well, not as happy as she'll be to see you," Angie replied. "I think you two really need some time with each other. I feel like it's been so long since I've seen you two together, and I hope that this little...visit will be the first of many as Star continues to heal. And I'm sure she'll be out of the hospital before you know it!" She exclaimed. "Then you two can get back to-"

"-fighting for our lives against a genocidal maniac?" Marco guessed.

"...I was going to say "being a couple", Marco." Angie sighed. "After that last incident you had with Bren-"

"You mean him beating me to death?"

"...Yes, that," Angie said, gulping and hoping that Marco wasn't going to be like this the whole time. "But like I was saying, after _that _incident, I think you two need some time away from all this...nonsense with demons and Gods and possessions and all that, Marco. It would do you two some good."

"Mom, the last time that happened, we went to the beach, which eventually ended with _that _incident." Marco pointed out, his newfound pessimism still going strong. "And I don't think getting away from it all is an option anyway. Not after the explosion. Bren's not going to let us be happy until we stop him. Which is exactly why we can't stop fighting until we beat him."

"Funny you should say that," Angie mumbled. "Considering that all you've been doing the past day and a half is sitting in your room, doing nothing, instead of going outside and helping people after the explosion like everyone else." She snapped, a tone of mild irritation in her voice.

"..."

"I...I'm sorry." She said, clearly shocked that she had said that. "It's not you. Everything recently had been so frustrating. Your father getting kidnapped, you and Star getting hurt, the explosion...all of it has made me have to bottle up a lot of stress, and I feel like I just need to take it out in something. I didn't mean to say that to you, I only-"

"It's okay if you did," Marco interjected. "I get it. I haven't been the best person recently. It's like you said. I've been moping and acting all depressed and I purposefully try to avoid you guys because I don't want to interact with other people. And you're also right about me being a hypocrite. I haven't gone outside once besides this since we first got home _that _day. When you asked me to help me move the boulder that was sitting in our driveway, I ignored you. Same as when you asked me to help you clean up all the glass as well as call Janna and the rest of my friends to make sure they're all okay." He sighed. "But I didn't do any of it, all because of a few measly injuries I received. You're...right. I shouldn't be letting those memories control-"

"Marco, _stop," _Angie said, who now had a few tears in her eyes. "Don't say that."

"Say what?"

"Measly injuries," Angie said. "Don't treat them like they don't matter. It's fine if you push past the memories and try to ignore them for a little while, but you shouldn't do that constantly and just lie to yourself about it."

"Why?" Marco asked. "That'd make you happy though. I stop acting sad and go back to my old self, and you get your _real _son back. Isn't that why you snapped at me? Because you were frustrated with how I was acting?"

"I don't want my "real" son back if this is the cost behind it!" Angie claimed.

"What cost?" Marco asked. "My injuries are all healed. There's no scars or anything like that. If I just ignore what I see every time I close my eyes, I should be back to normal in no time."

"Marco, your behavior the past few days is definite proof that you have scars from those incidents," Angie said. "You may have been healed physically, but your mental condition is still...suffering because of what you went through."

"Well, that can be fixed," Marco said. "What did I just recommend? These memories can't bother me if I don't let them. I've heard that if a person acts like someone else for too long, then they'll become that person. It's called the mask theory. It can be a similar thing here. If I act like my old self for long enough, then maybe I'll turn back into him. With no trauma, no horrible memories, no care about those measly injuries that I-"

"_Don't _call them that!" Angie sobbed. "And you're smarter than that, Marco! You of all people should know that's not how the masking theory works. Even if you did try that and it worked _partially_, those memories would remain no matter what. You can't erase them."

"Again with that? Why are you _so _worked up about the measly injuries thing?" Marco asked. "They're all healed now, so-"

"Marco, What did _I _just say?" Angie asked rhetorically. "Those injuries may be gone physically, but the method of how you got them still remains. The point is that you suffered an _immense_ amount of traumatizing experiences in less than _twelve hours_, and that theory of yours won't work against it!" She exclaimed, squeezing the steering wheel. "I...heard you last night, Marco. I went to get a glass of water, and I heard you crying in your room. I went in to check, and you were doing in your sleep. And then you started mumbling a thing about a "bar" and an "arena", two things that I know full well the meaning of."

"How do you know about that?" Marco asked, silently reminding himself to put a lock on his door. "I never told you the specifics about my beach dream. I just told you that I was possessed. Who did you learn that from?"

"Star," Angie said. "A little _before _we undid your possession, and a little after when I called the hospital and talked to her about you and if you wanted to visit. I asked her about those specifics...and she told me everything."

"Why did she have to do that…" Marco mumbled, placing his head against the window.

"Because she's _worried _about you and wants you to get better," Angie said. "I told her about the state you were in. About how you're acting. Marco, do you know what she said?"

"..."

Seeing no response from her son, Angie sighed again. "She said, "that's not the Marco I know". And I think that coming from her, that should mean more to you than almost any other thing _I _could say. Especially considering that I'm sure Star knows you better than we do, if that incident with the magic painting is anything to go by."

"..."

"Marco," Angie said. "For the third time, it's okay if you want to push us away temporarily. It's okay if you need time to...recover. You don't have to submit to that mask theory or any other method you come up with that requires burying everything deep down inside you where it will only haunt you later." She explained. "But you also can't do _this."_

"Do what?" Marco asked, turning away from his mother entirely.

"_That." _Angie specified. "You just turned away from me to avoid looking at me. You can't do things like _that. _If you turn away from your family, from _us, _both physically and metaphorically...it won't get you anywhere. You'll only hurt inside more as you refuse to accept help from us and eventually, you'll cave, Marco." She gulped and gripped the steering wheel even tighter. "And I don't want to see that happen to you. To my _son. _It was already painful enough to hear about all the pain you went through. I don't think I could handle you going through it again. Me or your father."

"How do you know that's what's going to happen?" Marco asked. "I never figured you as a psychologist, mom."

"I'm not a psychologist, Marco, I'm just using my common sense," Angie said. "Anyone can tell you that pretending that nothing is wrong and just ignoring it will only have worse consequences. What if you leave yourself...vulnerable again? Star told me that the...Fire-god likely got into your head because of your weakened mental state that it induced with that dream at the Beach. If you don't want us to help you, if you push us away and tear apart _again _in the process…" She sobbed. "...it might return and-"

"It won't," Marco said confidently. "It gave me its word. And I don't think I'm of any use to it anymore."

"Its word." Angie scoffed. "I know what happened at Janna's house, by the way. Eclipsa told me. Your nose started bleeding and you started shouting some things that _heavily _implied that you had been possessed again. Was that second possession _before _or _after _the promise it made, Marco?"

"..."

"..."

"...If Eclipsa told you everything that I shouted, then you should already know the answer to that one," Marco mumbled. "But if she didn't, then...yes. It was after."

"See?" Angie said. "It lied to you. And while I am greatly unnerved by the fact that there is now a _god _working to bring us all down, if what Star and Eclipsa told me is to be believed, I'm not going to let _you _let _it _possess you again. After this visit...we're going to get you the help you need. And that's final, Marco. You can complain and pout, but I'm not going to let my own _son _tear himself apart because of this mess."

"...And what will that help be, exactly?" Marco asked. "I went through experiences that no other human has gone through and survived. That possession and the arena. Fighting Bren. I literally _died _and then was resurrected for whatever reason. And I know you know all this, but the point is that no. person can relate to that. No person can help me. No therapist can sit down and say, "I can relate with that, and this is how I got through it". If I was ever going to get therapy for all the weird experiences in my life mom, I would have gotten it after I left the Neverzone. But I didn't, and I turned out just fine."

"You told us about the Neverzone, and if my knowledge of those next few days after the supposed date you came back on are correct, then you didn't act anything like...this!" Angie said. "You were back to your old self rather quickly. I noticed that there were _some _things you looked at like they were a new concept, but not everything. If that was traumatizing for you...you didn't show it, Marco. And what you said about therapists…" She continued. "Yes, you're right. No other human on Earth can fully compare to what you went through. But most therapists can't fully compare with _any _of their patients! But they manage to help those people anyways. Yes, again, your situation is just a new one for them to handle. But that doesn't mean you're beyond help. You just need a little more...time. Time for all of this to be sorted. And once that's done-"

"You'll get me a therapist, Star might come back to live with us, and we'll all live happily ever after?" Marco suggested, saying it with an almost sarcastic tone, which was more emotion than he had shown all day. "Mom, I know I'm going to sound pessimistic again, but even if Bren and whatever demon army he has were all killed _this instant_, and then Tom and the Underworld were freed, we'd still have a mountain of problems to take care of."

"Yes, I know." Angie sighed. "None of us have forgotten about how the town is running short on money or how the citizens are ready to riot. But that doesn't matter. We can simply ask for help from other towns. After they see what we've gone through, I'm sure they'll pledge to help any way they can."

"About that…" Marco mumbled.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure," Marco replied. "But I have a hunch that no help is coming. We didn't get anything for the demon attack, and while other hospitals did take in some of the towns wounded, have you seen a single military or air vehicle from _outside _Earthni show up on the streets? Why is the military standing by while Earthni burns? Shouldn't they be helping us beat Bren and shoving him back into whatever hole he crawled up? Have you seen or heard _any _form of support from the outside?"

"Come to think of it...no," Angie replied. "I haven't been actively searching for any, but now that you've mentioned it, I don't think I've seen any signs of outside help. But maybe they're just getting ready, Marco. Even for the military, this is an extremely dangerous situation. I'm sure they're just readying their troops on-"

"No, something's wrong," Marco said, shaking his head. "I didn't go to the last meeting, but I have a feeling that the whole "no help" thing was one of the topics they discussed. I think Eclipsa, Globgor, and everyone else is aware of something that Star and I aren't."

"Do you have any _proof _of this?" Angie asked, now looking slightly unnerved.

"Other than the fact that again, I haven't seen any outside aid around here, no," Marco replied. "But I feel like it's true. I just...know it."

"...Right." Angie sighed, before turning the wheel as she finally made it to the hospital parking lot, which was so packed that there were clumps of cars strewn about everywhere, their drivers not even bothering to find a proper space for them once all the _real _spaces ran out. Angie didn't know how most of these people planned to leave without waiting for an extremely long time, but at the moment she honestly didn't care herself. She parked the car in a spot where she could easily drive over a patch of grass to get back to the main road and turned the engine off, causing the constant hum of the car to fade into silence.

"We're here." She announced, stating the obvious. "Now, if we're not allowed to see her for whatever reason, then please don't get upset. Those doctors and nurses in there have been working day and night for almost two days helping people, and I'm betting at this point that most of them are ready to pass out from exhaus-"

Angie turned to look at her son as she said this word, only to notice that he was already outside the vehicle, waiting for her and looking through his phone. He was seemingly texting someone, although Angie couldn't see who. She sighed and got out herself, locking it behind her before signaling for Marco to follow her. He finished up whatever he was typing and then shoved his phone back in his pocket, before catching up to her and making it to the entrance before she was even ten feet away.

Once they were inside, however, they were met with a rather odd sight. The desk attendant was gone, their seating place empty, and there was nobody in the lobby besides a security guard that glanced up at them with a bored expression.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. "Sorry, but didn't you get the memo? If you have any injuries, you can't come here. They're packed full. If you need help, you'll have to go to a hospital outside of-"

"We're not here for any of that," Angie interjected. "We're here to see a patient. Star Butterfly."

"Oh." The guard said. "Go on ahead then. I think she's in room-"

"We know what room she's in," Marco said. "But are...you really just letting us go see her? Just like that? We don't need to fill out any visitor forms or anything like that?"

"Listen, kid." The guard sighed. "That was the job of the desk Attendant. And since they're currently dead, we don't have anyone else on call to do it. They asked me to, but I couldn't give less of a damn."

"Wait, the Attendant is _dead?" _Angie gasped. "What happened?"

"Bren happened." The guard deadpanned. "He came in yesterday with that demon servant of his and forced us to pull the evacuation alarm. It took forever to get everyone out of the hospital." He shook his head. "And don't even ask me how long it took to get everyone back _in…"_

"Hold on, Bren was _here?" _Marco asked, showing genuine interest. "Why? What did he want?"

"Well, he was actually after the same person you're here to see, coincidentally." The guard replied. "Butterfly. He didn't hurt her as far as I know, but he definitely did a number on the window to her room. We had to move her to another room entirely. And I know that doesn't sound like much, but considering how many patients we had, the number of people we had to displace for that one action was rather...high." He shrugged. "I don't know. It didn't matter to me."

"Star?" Marco growled, his fists balled together. "What did he do to her? Did he hurt her?"

"Uh...I already answered that." The guard said. "And the answer is no. He didn't hurt her. Her parents were here though, and I heard they got into a fight with him, which eventually led to the parking lot outside." He scoffed and twiddled his thumbs. "But not before he killed the Attendant and the Mewman security guard we had down here. Because of course, things couldn't be as simple as he claimed they would be, which was, by the way, just to "have a talk with Butterfly". Which honestly just sounds like an excuse to do something terrible."

"How dare he…" Marco mumbled. "When I see him again, I'll-"

"No, Marco, control yourself," Angie interjected. "Remember what we're here for, just to see Star. We're not here to worry about any of that."

"I don't care!" Marco contested. "If he came here and-"

"Visiting hours are going to be over soon, so do you two want to see her or not?" The guard asked. "I mean, _I'm _not going to stop you, but if anyone else sees you, it could get ugly. We're currently in the process of updating the hospital protocols since yesterday, and one of those protocols is making sure nobody can...sneak around."

"You sound like you don't care much about your job," Angie noted. "Considering that Bren came here just yesterday, and already _killed _one of the guards, I figured they'd hire someone more competent to take that position. Or at least hire multiple people."

"Don't assume I don't have any power." The guard sighed. "I won't tell you where it is, or how it works, but all I have to do is press a button and twenty heavily-armed men come storming in here to apprehend whatever threat attempts to break into the hospital. I know _you _two aren't a threat, but I suppose I should let you know, just in case you have doubts about our security."

"Even that may not be enough," Marco muttered. "At least not for Tom. Are all those men just regular humans and Mewmans? If they reveal themselves and they're still a decent distance away, then it'll be like shooting fish in a barrel for him."

"Maybe." The guard said. "But it's all we have at the moment. Everyone willing to do their job is here. The rest...well, they're still picking up whatever's left of their homes and/or families."

"Didn't need that imagery, thanks," Marco said. "But whatever. Let's just go, mom."

"...Okay," Angie said, before glancing over at the guard again. "One last thing. Where are all the doctors and nurses? The last time I came here, dozens were walking through this lobby constantly. But now it's just you. Why is that…?"

"They're all in the basement." The guard replied. "Eclipsa made sure that this hospital had a secondary hospital located in its basement with all the same equipment and stuff as the main one. In case of a total emergency. They're all taking shifts switching between the one upstairs and the one downstairs. It's been working so far...I think."

"Hold on, so if there's any problem with Star, we can't call for help?" Angie asked.

"You can. The patients up here were all given buttons to press in case of an emergency." The guard said. "It just might take a minute or two for them to get here…"

"This sounds like it goes against a lot of hospital protocols," Marco muttered.

"Probably, but that part of all this isn't my job." The guard said. "Now get going."

"...Gotcha," Marco said, and without waiting another second he pushed through the double doors that led into the main hospital, which was now completely vacant. Angie followed him a second later, and once they both disappeared the guard took out a walkie-talkie and spoke into it.

"Hallway C," He said. "Two visitors. Send someone to tail then to make sure they don't pull anything."

"Roger that." A voice from the other end said, and the guard shoved the device in his pocket and continued staring into oblivion.

By the time this task had been completed, Angie and Marco were already fifty feet away, moving towards the stairwell that led them to the floor Star was on. Angie couldn't help but be a bit unnerved by the empty corridors, like someone was watching her. The fact that all the lights were still on helped a little bit and they weren't cast in darkness, although the constant buzz of the fluorescent lights definitely took its toll on her psyche.

But Marco was affected by any of this he didn't show on, only staring straight forward and continuing to walk like nothing was wrong. Occasionally he turned around to look at his mother, which was rather confusing for the latter. But soon Angie realized that he wasn't looking at her, but rather at something _behind _her.

So casually as possible, she turned around and caught a glimpse of someone tailing them. They were dressed just like the security guard they had met in the lobby, although they weren't the same person. They were walking at the same pace as the two of them, and in an instant, Angie knew what they were following them for.

"They're there to make sure we don't do anything stupid." Marco suddenly blurted out. "In case you were worried, they're just making sure we don't try to harm the patients or anything like that."

"I was already aware of this, Marco," Angie said. "I thought it was too good to be true when that guard said we could go right ahead, _especially _after he mentioned that Bren came here yesterday."

"Ugh…" Marco spat. "He better not have done anything to Star that the guard didn't tell us about. Even if he just came here to "talk", him being near her makes me sick. I can't imagine what he wanted to talk to her _about..._but knowing him, it can't be good."

"From what I've heard, he likes to monologue and drag on conversations," Angie said. "It's possible that Star's parents attacked him _before _he even got the chance to fully explain what he had come there for."

"That's true. He always seems to have a way with words." Marco said. "And by "a way", I mean he uses way too many of them. Seriously, whenever I see him, ninety percent of the dialogue seems to come out of his mouth in whatever situation follows. It's so...egotistical. And that's not even getting to the pretentious crap he spouted before and during our fight. So much boasting. So many words that were filled with so much smugness that it's possible I died from _that _rather than my injuries. I doubt that smile of his left his face even once during that, even when Eclipsa hit him with her car." He sighed and shook his head. "And the worst part was that most of his pre-fight boasts were true, as he showed me a second later…"

"I...just realized," Angie said. "I don't think I'm aware of..._why _he wants to destroy Echo Creek. I've never been to any of your council meetings. The most interaction with a Royal other than Star is a few with her parents and the one with Eclipsa I had right before the Mansion blew up. I've been told a few things, but nobody ever said it flat out. I don't believe...I'm aware of why this is all happening."

"Really?" Marco said. "I feel like you would have known by now…"

"Well, again, no one told me, and I never asked before now. Like you, I suppose they assumed I already knew." Angie said. "I just know _who _Bren is and what he's been doing lately. But I don't know anything about why he wants to destroy the town and everyone in it."

"Hm. For starters, he doesn't want to destroy the town." Marco corrected, pushing open the door that led to the stairwell. "He's after Star. From what we've gained, Star destroying the realm of magic also caused _his _home dimension to be destroyed as well, and with the help of the Fire-god, he escaped and is now here for revenge against her. The rest of us...are just in the way."

"..."

"..."

"...So he wants revenge because Star destroyed his dimension?" Angie asked. "And everyone he ever knew, including his friends and family?"

Marco nodded.

"Well…" Angie started, biting her lower lip. "I'm not _justifying _his actions, but I certainly get why he would want revenge. If someone took away you and Rafael, I'd want justice against whoever did it. I have a feeling that-"

"NO."

"..."

"..."

"...Excuse me?" Angie asked, looking quite surprised at her son's outburst. "Marco, what do you mean "no"?"

"Don't…" He started. "Are you really...saying that you "get it"? That you _understand _why he's doing this? Are you _joking_, mom? Do you have any idea what he's done to accomplish that goal that you're trying to justify? Blowing up that mansion? Enslaving Tom and the rest of the Underworld? Killing _me?! _Are you trying to say...that he had a _good _reason for doing all those things?!"

"...Marco, I just told you that I wasn't trying to justify it. Not at _all." _Angie said shakily. "I just _understand _why someone would want revenge. What he's done is horrible, yes, but I'm not-"

"Not what?" Marco scoffed, before turning away from her and shaking his head. "You...just don't. Please don't say _anything _ever again like that, mom. Maybe you do understand it. Maybe you're in the right here. But I can't accept a view like that after what he did. It doesn't matter if his dimension was destroyed. We didn't know what would happen. _Star _didn't know what would happen. He had _no _right to just come by and-"

For a moment, Marco lost his momentum. He simply stood on the stairs, now a full three feet higher than his mother thanks to them, looking down on her while she looked up. And then, he simply turned around and started ascending them again, the mood now one of stony silence. Angie watched him go and then looked behind her to see the guard who had been following them, an awkward and sweating look on his face indicating that he had heard the whole conversation. He slinked out of sight at Angie's gaze and she sighed before following Marco, but making sure to keep her distance.

She figured he needed it.

'I shouldn't have said that.' She thought. 'I should have known he would have misunderstood what I was trying to say. I wasn't making light of anything, just showing that...no, it doesn't matter now.' She huffed. 'Hopefully seeing Star will cheer him up. It's like that's the only thing that makes him happy ever since...that. When Rafael and I eventually get Marco to therapy for all this, I think Star will need to be there. Otherwise, nothing might change. He might not listen to what the therapist has to say, unless Star convinces him to. At this point...she may be the only way to help him.'

After this, the rest of the walk up the stairs was silent, as was their walk as they made their way to the hospital room. Angie still kept her distance from her son, until finally, they stood in front of the doorway to Star's room. There were no guards to either side like last time, although that one guard was still watching them from afar, and Angie figured that the _hospital _figured it would be enough.

Or maybe they had just given up on protecting Stat from Bren entirely, considering that he had already killed two of their employees and they'd rather not lose any more. But whatever the case, they were mostly alone now. She and Marco glanced at each other, and the latter took the doorknob in his hand and twisted it. The door swung open a moment later, and the two were greeted with the familiar (well, familiar for one of them) sight of Star lying in the hospital bed. She was asleep and facing away from them, and almost looked peaceful despite her injuries. Angie started to wonder how much longer they were going to keep her in here after spotting the numerous bandages, while Marco slowly started forward, almost walking on his tip-toes as if not to wake her.

Angie followed him and shut the door behind them, and soon the buzz of the fluorescent lights in the hall faded away. The only sounds now were the ones from Star's heart monitor, and a soft snoring sound coming from her. Marco got closer and closer to her until he reached the edge of the bed, and then stuck one hand out and grabbed her shoulder, slightly shaking it.

"Star." He whispered. "Star, it's me. I'm here. It's Marco, I'm-"

The second Marco said "it's Marco", Star's eyes shot open and she sat up, making the boy jump back in surprise. She rubbed her eyes and gazed blankly at the two people that were now in her room, although she was really only looking at one of them. For a moment, the two of them just stared at each other, as if waiting for one to make the first move.

And in the next moment, Marco practically lept at Star, embracing her in a hug, which she returned before he even finished wrapping his arms around him. Angie was about to interrupt and make a comment for Marco to be careful because of Star's condition, but decided against it once they pulled their heads backs and then locked lips. She awkwardly looked away as they kissed, and this went on for a full thirty seconds until they stopped and separated, looking deep into the other's eyes and smiling happily.

"You came," Star whispered. "I was wondering...I was worried that you wouldn't visit...I've spent weeks in here without you…"

"Star, it's only been a few days," Marco said, before pulling her into another hug. "I think whatever terrible food they're feeding you is making you delusional."

"Well, with how bad it tastes, that's definitely a possibility…" Star chuckled, before closing her eyes and sighing. "How...how are things out there? I know it hasn't been _that _long since the explosion, but I haven't left this room except to use the bathroom once or twice, so...what's going on?"

"...It's bad," Marco said, with some hesitation as he squeezed the back of Star's hospital gown. "Even days later, people are still picking up bodies. Or finding new ones...the death count is going up by the hour, and the roads are a complete mess. We're just lucky that the path to the hospital was mostly cleared of debris. Although most of it was just swept to the side. It's like having a wall of rubble on either side of the road." He let out a sigh of his own and leaned into her. "I'm not sure...things are ever going to be good after this."

"Oh, don't talk like that. Of course they will!" Star exclaimed, before coughing and lowering her voice. "We just need a little time. You and me. Once I get out of this hospital, we'll take care of all of this together! I'm sure you and Eclipsa and the rest of the Council are doing a great job helping everyone. How is that going?"

"..."

"...Oh god, it's going horrible, isn't it?" Star asked, taking Marco's silence as an immediate bad sign. "How bad is it? Can the Royals not work together? Have any died? Please don't tell me that-"

"They're all okay...to my knowledge," Marco said. "Although I have heard that there is a lot of public hate towards Ponyhead. Apparently, she insulted a group of people attempting to clean up the town in a "demeaning" way, and once word spread that she wasn't cleaning up anything _herself…" _He sucked his breath in and slowly let it back out. "...Well, let's just say she's not that popular. I was actually woken up yesterday night by her screaming as an angry mob chased her. She's luckily the Cloud Kingdom floats and is only accessible by air, otherwise, I'm sure it'd have been demolished by now."

"I'd say I'm surprised, but I'm really not. That does sound like her." Star said. "Hopefully people forget about it in a few days though. There are more important things to worry about."

"I'm not sure that's the problem, Star," Marco said. "People are looking for someone to be angry at, and Ponyhead is currently that person. Before all this, people would forget about it in a few hours, but now...this could escalate into something a lot more serious. The public hate for Royals is already a well-known thing, and it may not be long before the lid on that pot goes flying off and the steamed anger of thousands of people come spilling out."

"..."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you anxious." Marco said. "Just...giving you an update."

"No, it's okay. I'm already as anxious as can be." Star said. "I don't think a little _more _bad news is going to faze me that much. You can tell me all the horrible things going on in the world right now, Marco. I don't care what it is, as long as you're here with me. Anything you want."

"_Anything?" _Marco asked, raising an eyebrow.

Star paused for a moment, before lowering her voice even further, so quiet that Marco almost couldn't hear it despite her mouth being directly next to his ear. "Well...unless you're dating someone else while I'm in here. I don't think my heart could take it."

Marco almost let go of her at this statement, frantically trying to find the right words as they poured out of his mouth. "Wha...what? No, Star, I would never, you-"

"Relax, I was kidding," Star said, resulting in Marco's face becoming one of relief. "Mostly because I know that if you _were _doing anything like that, then my dad would have killed long before I got the chance to."

"Yeah, that's true." Marco chuckled, knowing full well how protective River could be of Star, especially if it came to her feelings. "Speaking of River, though...I heard your parents came here yesterday, and things went a little...crazy."

"Ugh. Yeah." Star scoffed. "Bren showed up and wanted to tell me something, but he didn't get to fully explain it before my dad tackled him out the window. Not that I'm complaining. At this point, it's a pain to even hear his voice. Made me want to tear my ears off."

"Agreed," Marco said. "But what did he come here to talk about?"

"Something about Demon Magic, and that's all I remember, unfortunately," Star said. "When my dad took both Bren and himself out the window, my mom followed them, and I tried to as well by attempting to disconnect all this crap. The doctors who arrived five seconds later didn't take too kindly to that, and...they sedated me. It wasn't that fun. I woke up not knowing if either of my parents were alive, or if all that had even been a dream or not. But then when I saw that…" She jerked a thumb over to the window, which now had a thick sheet of plywood placed over it. "...I knew it wasn't."

"So then...what _did _happen in the end?" Marco asked.

"Bren got away, and my dad is currently in the hospital basement, getting treated for a few internal injuries," Star said. "Just like me, they had to drag him there to treat him, and if the rumors I'm occasionally hearing outside my room are correct, he's refused any painkillers." She giggled and sighed. "I guess a hatred of medicine just runs in the family…"

"I think that comes from your Johansen side," Marco said, stifling a laugh. "Back at the Hill of Flags, I saw one of those guys take three arrows to the chest and walk right off like nothing had happened. I honestly wonder if he even removed them or not, or just left them there."

"Probably removed them," Star said. "And then made sure to show off the scars any chance he got. I've been at Johansen-only family gatherings before. And I have to say, there is a lot of...clothing removal. And not in a weird way, just a "check out my scars and muscles, my body is superior to yours" way."

"That certainly explains why River wears nothing but a loincloth half the time…" Marco said. "But how are your parents anyway? And by "parents", I mean Moon. Based on what you said, River is still the same as ever."

"Mom is...that's complicated," Star said, hugging him a little bit tighter. "We had a bit of an argument yesterday during her visit...or several. It really got nowhere by the time Bren arrived. She wanted to use Demon Magic to help fix the town, and I accused her of trying to take power again, and she tried to reassure me that she _wasn't…" _She sighed and shook her head, nuzzling her chin against Marco's shoulder. "...And that conversation went in circles until you-know-who showed up."

"Yeesh. Maybe I should try and talk to her." Marco said. "I'm not sure I'm too excited with the idea of her using Demon Magic either. Does she even know how it works? We did help with that spell back during the demon attack, but I honestly think we should leave this stuff to people like Janna until further notice. But...do you really think your mom would try to seize power again?"

"I don't know...maybe," Star said. "She may be kind of aloof these days, but every time I see her, she just seems depressed. Like she's longing for the days of when she was still queen. Or had anyone following her, for that matter. Now she has no subjects, her reputation is trash, and even though most everyone doesn't care about what she did anymore, she still thinks they all hate her. It's made just about the most introverted and antisocial person in the entire town. Even more so than Janna, and that's saying something."

"I think she said to me once that she's thinking of moving to another Earth country, in the middle of nowhere, and settling down there forever," Marco recalled. "I guess she just wants to run from her past, and each time she goes outside or talks to a person that isn't River, it catches up to her in no time flat."

"Where is she even going to go?" Star groaned, which was her response every time this rumor came up. "Some remote place in the mountains where nobody lives? How is she going to survive? Farm everything herself?"

"I mean, she did it just fine after she and River left the castle." Marco pointed out. "But I think River _himself _would be the problem here. He definitely wouldn't want to move and have to take a twenty-hour plane ride anytime he wanted to see you. And wherever they're going, I doubt it's going to have the Internet...or electricity in general. So calling him by phone or by a video chat is also not an option. And I think your dad would just screw up and accidentally smash the thing the first time it requested for an "update"." He chuckled.

"Yeah, he totally would." Star agreed. "But she better not leave now. If she abandons us when things get to their absolute worst, then I swear I will call a ceasefire with Bren, find her, and then inflict every single possible torture I can-"

"Star…"

"...Right, I'm just going to teach her a lesson." Star corrected, Marco's brash saying of her name reminding her that Moon was still her family, and families didn't torture each other physically. (Although if she _did _leave, her status as a member of Star's "family" might be due to change.) "But seriously, if she leaves-"

"She won't," Marco said. "I get why she would, and why you think she might...heck, I would get why _anyone _would leave these days...but she's not going anywhere. I've visited her a few times, alone, and I can say with certainty that even if she wants to avoid everyone and keep to herself, she still greatly cares about the kingdom. Even with those rumors, she won't abandon the citizens to Bren just to save her own skin. I get that your relationship with her is...rocky, at the moment, but don't think of her _that _badly."

"She's certainly not giving a lot of reasons to." Star scoffed. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that she was _trying _to worsen our relationship. Talking about taking power with magic again...why did she think I would approve of that? In any shape or form?"

"Actually, can I get some _full _context on that?" Marco requested. "I don't know the whole story. What was she planning to _do _with it? Just blast Bren in the face and hope for the best?"

"Something like that, I guess," Star said. "And after we used it to kill him, she told me that we could use it to better the town. Fix everything. Make life here...livable again. Maybe spawn some money to take care of _that _problem. She never actually said that, but I'm sure she was _thinking it."_

"That's...not a bad plan, to be honest," Marco said. "But the only problem is…"

"Yeah. The cost." Star said. "We'd need to have an annual blood drive _every day _just to get enough to do anything _close _to that."

"Well, if you need blood, there's plenty of it on the streets…" Marco joked.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...I am so sorry. That was a horrible joke."

"Better be," Star said. "If anyone around here heard you say that, you'd get punched in the mouth."

"I know. I'm just trying to lighten the mood." Marco said. "Although I'm not sure if I'm doing that for you or for myself…"

"Oh yeah...that reminds me," Star said nervously. "How are you, ah, coping? Janna called the hospital earlier and asked to speak to me, and-"

"Wait, that was an _option?!" _Marco asked, pushing away from Star and looking at her like she had just revealed the secret to life, the universe, and everything, and this time it wasn't just 42. "If I had known _that, _if I could just talk to you whenever, then I would have been on the phone with you every chance I got! This...This changes everything! I'll have to as my mom when we get home if you can borrow her phone or something so I can call you using _mine _and then-"

"I'm standing right here." Angie pointed out, trying not to point out that _she _had already made a call with Star, and had actually mentioned it back in the car. And Marco...had more likely than not just not paid attention during it. "And although I didn't hear a word of what you two were whispering about for the late ten minutes...I did hear that last part. And yes, Marco, Star can borrow my phone for a...while if it means that it'll make you happy."

"Yes! Thank you, mom!" Marco said, before turning back to Star. "Finally some good news, am I right? Now we can talk whenever we want!"

"Yeah, but I do like it better when you're here in the flesh," Star said. "But also, yeah, that was an option. Although I think it's only allowed for more...high-profile patients, for whatever reason."

"Probably because if other patients knew that that was allowed, then the hospital would have to keep a stockpile of phones just so everyone would be satisfied. And I can't even _imagine _what the phone bills would be like at the end of the month." Marco said, before scoffing. "Oh, who am I kidding? They'd just past them off to the patients anyway…"

"Probably," Star said. "But back to what I was saying. Janna called the hospital earlier and told me that you were...not doing so hot. How are you exactly? Is there anything I can help you get through?"

"Just _being _here with you is helping me get through this," Marco said. "Although I would say that...I could use a little comfort. I've been having nightmares non_stop, _and whenever I close my eyes, I see…" He shuddered and gulped, bringing Star into a _third _hug, this one tighter then the previous ones combined, to the point where Star considered if she should push him off due to her poor physical state. "...things. I see things."

Although she knew she was going to regret it later, Star couldn't resist. "What kind of things?" She asked.

"Mostly memories," Marco replied, his voice shaking slightly. "That nightmare at the beach, me attacking you, fighting Bren and dying, talking with the Fire-god after death, the nosebleed I got and falling out of the car when it tried to possess me again...mostly those things. But it varies. Even if it hasn't been that long since it all happened, I can still see it all so often that I've practically relived the entire experience at this point. And...all the pain that came with it. But not physically this time. More mentally. It more feels like someone is dragging a rusty nail across my brain, and all I can do is sit and do and nothing and now-"

"Okay, okay, calm down, Marco, calm down…" Star said softly, trying to soothe him after noticing how fast his voice was getting. "It's okay. None of that is happening now. You have me, and your mother, and your father, and a bunch of other people who will help you get through this. You don't have to worry about being alone here…"

"That's not what I'm worried about," Marco said. "I try to be alone on _purpose. _Before I came here, I spent practically the whole day in my room, avoiding everyone else, I didn't want to talk to my parents, or see them, or do _anything _else they involved their presence and I don't know _why _it was almost like someone had taken over my brain again and-"

"You're just recovering, Marco, it's totally normal," Star interjected again. "I've seen it before. Different people cope with trauma in different ways. Back on Mewni, before I came to Earth, I saw knights that had gone to war come back traumatized. Some of them avoided other people, saying that they just needed to be alone and didn't give _any _explanation beyond that. But they got better eventually and stopped being so anti-social. And that's you, Marco. Don't worry if you don't want to be around anyone. It's perfectly normal. Eventually, you _will_, but you just have to give it some time."

"I...you really think so?" Who was frankly surprised at how good of a speech/answer that was. "Do you think I can just get better using time?"

"Well...no. You're going to have to do a few things yourself…" Star started. "But it's only going to be hard if you let it. And are you going to?"

"Definitely not," Marco said.

"That's right," Star said. "So when you get home, it's fine if you go straight up to your room again, Marco. But soon you'll feel an urge, small as it may be, to go back downstairs and be surrounded by other people, and that's where your participation in this whole healing process will come in. Okay?"

"O-okay," Marco said shakily. "Eh...but, Star, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"How do you know so much about this stuff?"

Star laughed after this, as if Marco had just told her the world's most hilarious joke. "Oh, Marco, I saw more death and blood and destruction at the age of ten then almost every person on Earth. And while most Mewman parents want their children to get used to that kind of stuff, and they usually do, some don't. And my parents taught me all sorts of lessons on how to deal with trauma in case all of the horrible stuff they were showing me didn't have the effect they wanted. It didn't, but the lessons were still useful. And I'm glad…" She sighed happily and buried her face in his shoulder. "...That I finally got to put them to use."

"Yeah, well hopefully they'll actually _be _useful," Marco said. "But thanks for the advice."

"It's nothing," Star said, before yawning. "Wait." She then pushed Marco away again and stretched herself out. "What time is it?"

"It's about...12:30 in the afternoon," Angie said. "Why?"

"Ah, great. It's lunchtime." Star whined. "Or about to be, anyway. At twelve thirty-five lunch starts, and somehow the meals they give us are even worse than the dinner and breakfast ones. Seriously. It looks like someone vomited on a plate and then tried to reconstruct it by hand."

"I think that's probably an exaggeration, Star," Marco said. "I know hospital food has a reputation for being bland and tasteless, but you're making it sound like they're serving you piles of grey slop."

"May as well be," Star said. "Because of the influx of patients, they've already run out of normal food and are currently waiting for the next shipment. And in the meantime, they've been using the "emergency stash" from the basement. And there's apparently enough down there to last for weeks."

"Emergency stash?" Angie asked.

"Yeah. It was created by Eclipsa a couple of months ago." Star said. "Well, sorta. A month or so after Earthni started, Eclipsa found a three-hundred-year-old cookbook buried deep in the remains of Butterfly castle that had a recipe for a dish that's easy to make and highly nutritious. But the downside is...it tastes like literal crap. I have no idea what's it made of, but whatever it was, the ingredients for it were so numerous on Earth that once someone who worked at the hospital caught wind of the whole thing, they bought the recipe from Eclipsa and had like...five metric tons of the stuff made and stored in one of the hospital's sublevels, in case the hospital ever ran out of food."

"_Five _metric tons? Jeez." Marco said. "But wouldn't it have spoiled by now? Unless they have a freezer down there the size of a convention center…"

"It doesn't spoil. Whatever it is, it's completely immune to spoiling as long as it's properly stored in a container, like honey or something." Star explained. "And before you ask why this recipe hasn't been mass-distributed for all the world to use, it almost was, but several food industries got a taste of the stuff and claimed that nobody would eat it, not even in a life or death scenario." She sighed and flopped backward. "Guess they were wrong about that…"

"At least you won't run out of food," Angie said.

"Sure, but when the doctor comes in here with the dish, I dare you to take a bite," Star said. "Both of you. You'll see why I'm tempted to starve myself."

"I'm good, thanks," Marco said. And then almost like clockwork, the door to the room opened and in strolled a security guard, carrying a medium-size plate that was on top of a plastic tray one might find in a school cafeteria. He took one look around the room, realized that Angie and Marco were visitors, quickly handed it to Angie, whispered something in her ear, and then left as soon as he had come.

"...What was _that _all about?" Marco asked once he had left. "Mom, what did he whisper to you?"

"He told me to just give the plate to Star," Angie said. "Although I don't know why he couldn't do it himself. I suppose that he just has to work fast with so many patients and that anything that could quicken his pace is appreciated-"

"Actually, it's all my fault," Star interjected. "During the first few days I was here, I occasionally tried to...attack anyone that came into my room at random intervals, telling them to let me go back home, even if I was in a mountain of pain. They eventually wised up and sent a security guard instead of a doctor, just in case I tried to pounce on someone else."

"If you were strong enough to attack them, then wouldn't you be strong enough to leave on your own?"

"Oh, definitely. Except for the fact that I'd be swarmed with _dozens _of guards the second I tried to leave the room by myself." Star said. "I'm pretty sure they're keeping a constant eye on this place...even with the shortage in personnel."

"Well, in any case…" Angie said, approaching Star and setting the tray in front of her. "If you want us to leave while you eat, we can. We'll just go back to the lobby and come back when-"

"No, it's fine, it's going to be a while before I eat it anyways," Star said, shakily picking up the tray and setting it on the bedside table. "Usually I have to mentally prepare myself to eat that stuff, which takes like...a half-hour or so. Not only does it taste disgusting but it also feels like it saps all the happiness and feeling right out of your body for a few hours. I don't know why, but my personal theory is that it's my brain working in tandem with my body, punishing me for ingesting such a horrible thing."

Marco was about to comment on how that was impossible, but he decided against it, instead sitting down at the edge of her bed and biting the edge of his lip.

"When do you think you'll be able to leave?" He asked. "How much longer are you going to be stuck in here?"

"I have no idea," Star said. "A week, a month, the doctors won't give me anything specific. Although considering how many x-rays they showed Eclipsa...it's probably going to be a while before everything heals to the point where they're legally allowed to let me go."

"I'm not sure if that's a real thing, but okay," Marco said, clearly disappointed with her answer. "Well, I promise to visit as much as I can. And to use that phone function the hospital has, _which I didn't know about until now for whatever reason…" _He growled. "...So you don't have to worry about being alone. And I'm sure the rest of your friends will want to see you as well."

"Don't even talk about that," Star said. "Starfan13...if she has a real name, I don't know it, tried to see me yesterday in the middle of the night, and she caused quite a stir, literally for some patients, when she refused to leave without getting to visit. She left eventually, but later that night I heard tapping on the hospital window." Star sighed again. "I didn't even bother looking, since I knew what was going to be there if I did anyways."

"Yeesh. I was kinda hoping she would grow out of that, but I guess not…" Marco said. "Although come to think of it, it feels like I haven't seen her in forever. In fact, it feels like I haven't seen _tons _of my former classmates in forever. The last time I saw Ferguson or Alfonzo was months ago. And Jackie...well, I guess she did go on that all-summer trip with her girlfriend. I wonder if she even knows what's going on here now."

"I hope not. I don't want her worrying about us." Star said. "Even if my friendship with her has been rocky in the past, although that was really only from my perspective, I want at least _one _person from this town to be happy in the middle of all this crap. She's safe, at least. We can be happy about that."

"Safe…" Marco echoed. "God, now that we're on the topic, I really should check up on them. I hope none of them got hurt, or worse, _died _in that explosion. It wasn't closer to the main neighborhood where they all live, but those rocks and the shockwave proved that they could do enough damage by themselves."

"Make sure to give me an update when you do find out how they're doing," Star said, before pointing at the TV hanging on the wall. "But I did see on the news that classes are probably going to be canceled until further notice when the time comes to open the schools. And not just because of the blast, but because they're afraid the school may be "targeted" due to how many people are going to be inside it at one time."

"You really don't think Bren would…?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Star asked. "He's shown that he'll do anything to get at me. If blowing up that school and everyone inside hurts me in any way, whether physically or mentally, I don't think he would bat an eyelid at the idea. More than a few of the victims in _that _blast were children after all. And if he showed any remorse for that when he came to my hospital room, he didn't bother showing it."

"..."

"..."

"I think we should switch topics," Angie said. "Marco, after this, we'll call all your friends to see how they're doing, but as for now, I don't think that talking about Bren attacking the school is doing anything for the conversation."

"That's fair," Star said, rubbing her head. "But other than all that, I really don't have much to talk about. I've been in this bed for days. I don't fully know what's going on. Heck, what is the Council doing? I get that there's public hate against them now, or mostly Ponyhead, but what are they doing to remedy this?"

"Pretty much nothing," Marco replied. "I know for a fact that more than a few have holed themselves up in their castles because they're afraid the citizens will try to kill them. I heard from Eclipsa in a phone call last night, when she was informing me about what happened at the last meeting, that Janna apparently mentioned the French Revolution during it and made an analogy about how we're the rich people that the "peasants" got angry at and decapitated. Eclipsa said that Janna's little comparison had a much greater effect on the Royals than she realized, so now a bunch have taken to hiding away before they meet a similar fate as the people in her history lesson." Marco then scoffed again and shook his head. "I guess Janna failed to mention the part where the "peasants" consistently _stormed_ the houses of the rich to destroy documents and trash them, but whatever. Long story short, the Royals are all running scared, except for Eclipsa and Globgor. Which of course will only _worsen _their public image even more."

"Well, that's just great," Star said sarcastically. "At least my mom had the guts to actually go outside. Heck, when she first saw the blast, because she was so far away and couldn't make out what it was, she thought it was a _nuke _and headed to her mini-shelter in the basement."

"Your mom has a shelter?" Marco asked. "Huh. Well, if the world outside ever devolves to a point where nuclear war is a likely possibility, make sure to remind me to go to her house…"

"_Mini_-shelter, Marco," Star said. "She mentioned it was made for only three people. And I'm sure she intends for the third person to be me. But anyways, she at least went outside to face what was happening. And judging by the _look _on her face when she got here, she saw a lot more than what she was usually accustomed to…"

"Seriously?" Marco asked. "Hasn't she fought in multiple wars? Shouldn't this be like a walk in the park for her?"

"The actual fighting in a war and the aftermath of one, or any event _like _it, are two different things, unfortunately," Star said. "My mom never really got around to getting used to the latter. And neither did I. If there's one thing I'm grateful for while being stuck in here, it's that I don't have to see all the horrors that are literally right outside my window."

"Trust me, it's not easy to get used to," Marco said. "I mean, god, the death toll is _still rising. _There are dozens of partially collapsed buildings still waiting to be uncovered, and that's only the human and Mewman part of town! I haven't heard anything about the Monster section! But considering how weak and fragile their houses can be to the normal ones, I can only imagine what they're going through." He said, before putting a hand to his chin. "Huh. You know, come to think of it, I actually haven't heard _anything _about the Monster section of town, not even from the news."

"Yeah…" Star said, once again glancing at her TV. "I did notice that. Maybe they're not that damaged at all. They are, after all, the district that's farthest away from the blast site."

"There has to be more to it than that," Marco said. "Just the shockwave should have blown some of those huts over like they were made of tissue paper. I wonder if they just want to be left alone...maybe some Monster tradition where after some great tragedy, they-"

"Doesn't exist," Star interjected. "If it did, I would know about it, and I don't. I guess that once I get out of this hospital, we can go see Buff Frog and Katrina and everyone else. See how they're coping. Or maybe...we should pay another visit to that secret little council they have set up in the woods. Haven't heard from _them _in a while either."

"Oh, yeah," Marco said. "At Ludo's house. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope he's okay."

"Excuse me…" Angie said. "What secret council are you two talking about? In the middle of the woods?"

"Oh, right. You don't know anything." Marco said. "Uh, I'm not sure if we should tell you. We've probably already said too much, and they _did _ask us to keep their existence a secret-"

"We can tell her. If they care, tough." Star said. "Their existence shouldn't be a secret anymore. Their little club was created to make life for monsters better. If _anyone _tries to be racist towards Monsters after this whole Bren business is finished, then they're getting kicked out of town, no questions asked. I'm done playing around with that sort of stuff. If we make it through this, we'd have survived _one _calamity, and I'm _not _going to have anything like riots or protests about the presence of Monsters on my hands. I'll drag them out with my bare hands if I have to, but long story short, we're _done _with that chapter in Mewni's history."

"...Well, I'm all up for that," Marco said. "But how are we going to enforce it? Are we going to _literally _kick out anybody who tries to be biased towards Monsters? Because people can get better. We should at least try that first before-"

"Marco, if these people were going to get better and see that they were in the wrong, it would have been _after _Mina was defeated, over six months ago," Star said. "Anybody who even had the smallest hint of intelligence turned to our side and gave up on her. You saw how stupid her remaining followers were. Seriously, that posse was something out of a comedy skit. I honestly couldn't believe people like that existed in real life and managed to make it to adulthood."

"That's...a fair point," Marco admitted. "But what Manfred? He stayed with Mina almost until the very end."

"Almost," Star said. "And then he gave her up at the last moment. Now I think he's in Europe or something, checking out all the ancient castles. He kinda fled the first chance he got."

"No surprise there…" Marco mumbled. "Well, I hope he's having fun without having to deal with Bren."

"I'm sure he is. But forget Manfred for now. And _preferably _forget. I'm sure he's never coming back once he catches wind of what's going on here." Star said. "And speaking of which, how is the situation with outside help? I've been hearing rumors out in the halls that no help is arriving, but considering that this is coming from people who have been in a state of shock for the past few days, I've been taking it with a lick of salt. How's that going?"

"Umm…" Marco said, not looking forward at all to this. "Bad. It's very bad, Star. I'm sorry to say this, but those rumors are completely true. If what Globgor told me on the phone is correct, then yes, no one is coming for us. Bren made a deal with the U.S. government that allows _them _to gain possession of some spells, Demon Magic of course, and in turn, they won't let any information about what's going on here get outside of Echo Creek. _And _no aid will come right to us. Military, medical, or anything else of the sort."

"..."

"..."

Star scoffed and looked away, surprisingly unsurprised. "Bureaucrats." She spat. "Of course. I honestly should have seen this from the-"

"No, you shouldn't have," Marco said. "None of us did. This isn't your fault, and it's not mine, and it's not anyone else's. It's Bren's and the government's. Theirs. And it's not-"

"_Excuse me?" _Angie interjected, stepping forward and looking much more concerned. "Did I…is that true, Marco? Is no one coming to help us?"

"Wait, you didn't know?" Marco asked. "Didn't you talk with Eclipsa last night though? I feel like that's something she would have told you…"

"She probably _didn't _tell me because she knew that I might tell other people, and it could lead to a mass panic!" Angie said. "I wonder how many others know about this...how long have _you _known?"

"Not that long. Honestly." Marco said. "And I was just as surprised as you are. Yes, this is a terrible problem and we're going to have to fix it, but just...try not to freak out for me, mom."

"I think I need to take a seat…" Angie mumbled, before grabbing a chair leaning up against the wall and sitting in it. She leaned back, looking fully ready to pass out at any minute, so Marco sighed and turned back to Star, figuring that he better just give his mother time to calm down.

"Anyway." He said to Star. "That's a thing. And before you ask about people going to hospitals that aren't in the town, that's probably because the government hasn't gotten to them yet. Or Bren is just allowing it so the riots don't destroy the town before he does. But either way, that's likely all we're going to get when it comes to outside aid. We're on our own now."

"I'd make some comment about this makes things even worse, but honestly, things are already so bad that this hardly affects me in the slightest," Star said. "Just another problem to be solved. Although if we do win this fight, we're going to have to hammer down on the government and expose the fact that they _let _this all happen, and didn't allow _any _news about it to get out-" Star suddenly stopped cold mid-syllable, her mouth hanging open just the slightest bit as her voice died in her throat. It was like she was a TV, and someone had pressed the pause button on the remote.

"Star?" Marco asked. "Are you okay?"

"...That's a lie," Star said. "News _did _get out about the explosion. Yesterday afternoon, before Bren arrived, and before another one of my naps, I got a package from Janna. And it contained a transcript of the last meeting, the one where the Royals talked about what they should do to fix the problem. And in it, Janna mentioned how a relative of hers called her to see if she was okay. That alone is proof that at least _something _about it got out."

"Really?" Marco asked. "But if that's true...then did the whole _country _just dismiss it? Or did the government somehow cover it up before it got too large?"

"If the news made it thousands and thousands of miles away, then I don't think there would be _any _way to fully "cover it up"," Star said. "No, this had to be something else. Did they claim it didn't happen? That it was all a load of crap? Or maybe...is Janna's cousin _like _Janna? The kind of person who finds out information that they're not supposed to?"

Marco shuddered after Star said this. "Oh, please no." He begged. "You just made me think about having _two _Janna's in the same room. I'm pretty sure that every single one of my possessions would be stolen by the end of the day."

"I'm sure only _one _Janna is needed for that." Star chuckled. "Even with those broken arms, she's still the best thief I've ever seen. Seriously. Remember that time when we visited Ponyhead in the hospital when she got sick? Yeah, when we got back to your house, once you went into the bathroom, Janna pulled out what looked like three bottles of pills, six syringes filled with who knows what, and a few bags of blood from her pockets. Pockets that couldn't even carry half of that. And I can tell you that we didn't come _close _to any of that stuff while we were in there. But somehow, she managed to get them. Sometimes it makes me wonder if she doesn't secretly have super-speed or something. It would explain a _lot."_

"She stole from a _hospital? _Seriously?" Marco asked. "Okay, I know she's kind of a kleptomaniac, but that's...not cool."

"Ah, don't worry," Star said. "She said she got them from the basement, and that what she grabbed was nothing they wouldn't miss. Again, she was by my side the entire time and we never went to the basement, but I didn't ask her about it. Mostly because I knew she wouldn't tell me how…"

"If she's capable of pulling off feats like that, then it sucks that she's out of commission," Marco said. "We could have her infiltrate the Underworld, and she'd probably succeed, for god's sake…"

"Let's not get crazy," Star said. "But okay. The government has turned against us. Janna's cousin somehow got the information, but other than that we don't know if anyone else managed to. If news about this gets out, then-"

"Too late." Marco gasped, his eyes going wide.

"Huh, what do you mean-" Star started, before her gaze followed Marco's own and hit the TV, which had been on and turned to a news channel but was muted this entire time. But they didn't need sound to understand what was going on. The headline at the bottom of the screen was clear to see.

"GOVERNMENT HAS ABANDONED EARTHNI." It read, which didn't take a genius to figure out the meaning behind. Star grabbed the remote that was next to her bed without even taking her eye off the screen and pressed the mute button, which _unmuted _the TV and instantly sounds burst into the room.

"...And there is no change to the law as of this time. But in other news, recent details have come out concerning the U.S. government's reaction to the events currently happening in Earthni." The reporter said, who was standing in front of a random road. "Recent details have emerged from an unknown source that the government knows what is happening in Earthni, referring to the recent incidents with Bren, and is doing nothing to stop it, possibly because of an unknown deal between them and the person attacking our town. Is it also believed that they are purposefully preventing information about the attack from reaching any outside sources, although this is currently speculation at best. Again, it is unknown _who _this information came from. It was delivered to the local news station via an unmarked envelope late last night. Security footage shows a person, likely human or Mewman judging by their shape and size, arriving last night and dropping off the envelope."

The screen then switched to show a short video of the said person approaching the front of the news station, practically walking on their tiptoes. They were obscured completely by a large cloak, to the point where even their hands weren't visible. Just like the reported had said, they pulled an envelope from their coat and slid it underneath the door before walking off, briefly checking their surroundings to make sure nobody was following them. After this, the video stopped and the camera went back to the reporter, looking grim.

"If anyone recognizes this person, please alert your local poli...I mean knight force, and tell them where you saw them and when. And if this person is watching this right now, we please ask that you turn yourself in to give us the source of what we found in that envelope. Because if this is true, then-"

"You're going off-script!" Someone off-screen hissed, completely audible to everyone. "Stick to it! Stick to it!"

"No, I'm not sticking to it!" The reporter complained. "If this person is out there, then they _should _show themselves for the betterment of the town! If this information is true, even a small part of it, then the implications are that-"

"This is the news, not the time for personal opinions!"

The reporter scoffed and rolled their eyes. "Oh please. Isn't that _all _the news is nowadays?"

"Why you little-" The unknown person started, and someone blurry ran on-screen before it quickly clicked to black. Everything was silent for a few moments until another reporter showed up, looking rather nervous, who then started giving a weather report in the most boring fashion imaginable.

Not wanting to hear any more of this nonsense, Star groaned and muted it before burying her head in her hands.

"Well, I guess the cats out of the bag," Marco said. "I hope that guy doesn't get fired."

"Not our problem," Star said. "But what's _really _important is that everyone in town now knows the truth. And I'm betting they're all going to have the same reaction as _her _over there."

Star then motioned over towards Angie, who was still looking shell-shocked over the news.

"Uh...mom?" Marco asked, just now realizing how traumatized she looked. "Are you okay? You looked like you've seen a ghost...like, a lot of ghosts."

"Well, around here I wouldn't be surprised…" Star mumbled. "But yeah. Mrs. Diaz? Are you-"

"I'm okay," Angie said, waving them off suddenly. "I'm still just processing all this. And hearing it on the news like that...Marco, I think we should get home before rioters swarm the streets. I think the arrival of information like that into the public is going to cause mass panic, whether they think it's true or not."

"Okay, but can we stay here a few more minutes?" Marco asked. "With _that _having been announced, there's a few things that Star and I need to talk about."

"I suppose, Marco. But be quick." Angie said. "Hopefully we can get home before their streets become clogged with people."

"I'm sure it'll be fine, mom," Marco said, before lowering his voice to a whisper and sighing. "Great. Now she's turning into me when I'm not around you. Is my entire family going to end up like this eventually? What's going to happen to my father? He already got kidnapped, and while he oddly wasn't affected in the slightest by that whole ordeal, I'm still worried-"

"Marco, you make it sound like your family is cursed, which it's definitely not," Star said. "Just give your mom some time. I don't think you'll have to worry about the streets being clogged. I'm sure everything is at home thinking to themselves right now, wondering if this is true or not."

"Probably," Marco said, before scooching closer. "Okay. Who do you think the guy that dropped off the envelope was? One of the Royals?"

"Well, I'm not sure." Star. "Before five minutes ago, who else but me, you, your mom, Globgor, Janna, those knights, and Eclipsa knew about the whole government thing?"

"Umm...not that many, as far as I'm aware," Marco replied. "Again, I only got this information because of a phone call, and even then Eclipsa didn't give that many details. She didn't sound like she wanted this information to get out."

"For obvious reasons," Star said. "So that rules out her and her husband, I think. Hm. What about someone who works in the Monster Temple? Like that Archibald guy? Their butler? Do you think he may have overheard them talking about it?"

"I've seen Archibald before, Star, and the guy in the news footage was _definitely _not him," Marco said.

"Yes, but he might have told someone else who in turn sent out that envelope," Star said. "Or heck, I heard that they converted the Temple into a shelter for people whose homes were decimated. Maybe one of _them _overheard and wanted for it to get out."

"I don't think so," Marco said. "Eclipsa told me that all of them had already left when I asked about it, and I believe that this was _before _she and Globgor got a hold of this info. I don't think it was any of them."

"Meaning…?"

"Meaning it was someone else. Maybe someone who was listening to what they were saying." Marco said, before his eyes widened. "Oh...shit. You don't think…?"

"That Bren did it?" Star asked. "I mean, if he wants to cause chaos and get us to turn against each other, this is a pretty good way to do it. Like I've said before, he claims he wants us to try and beat him for fun, but it's obvious he wants us weakened first before he actively goes out to destroy us." She scoffed and turned away. "Yeah. It's possible that he did this."

"Fantastic," Marco said. "But even if it wasn't, this is still a huge problem. I think we should focus on-"

"_We?" _Star asked. "Shouldn't we let Eclipsa and Globgor handle this? What are we going to do? I'm still stuck in the hospital and you're...I'm just going to say it flat out. I'm sure you're in no condition to stop any riots with the power of your voice."

"True, but _you _can do that," Marco said. "Remember your speech on Beach day? You calmed everyone in that force down even though they were five seconds away from screaming for blood. You saved the day then, and I'm sure you can save it now."

Star frowned. "Marco, what did I just-"

"And I'm sure the hospital will let you go if it means that the town will be saved." Marco continued. "Once they see how bad things are about to get, we'll demand that they let you go. They will, and together, but with mostly you because I'm pretty useless right now, we can solve this problem before it becomes a bigger one."

"As enthusiastic as that makes me, I don't think it's going to work," Star said. "Yes, Marco, I hate it here. The bad things I've said about it do not even come close to the truth of how much I hate this place. But I think…" She gulped and looked away like she was ashamed. "That I may need to stay here until the doctors say I can leave."

"What?!" Marco exclaimed, wondering if this Star Butterfly was the same one he had been talking to just five minutes ago. "Are you serious? I thought you'd be jumping for joy at an opportunity like this!"

"I _would _be if I could jump at _all, _and that's the whole point!" Star said. "You weren't here yesterday. You didn't see the state I was in. But I can tell you that it was _awful. _I woke up in the middle of the night and threw up multiple times throughout the day because of the pain. The doctors told me it was because I had held off getting medical care for so long, and my body and the pain receptors we're finally catching up. I could barely move for most of the morning, and that feeling persisted almost throughout the entire day. I was in so much pain that even _talking _made me want to throw up."

"So...what does that mean?" Marco asked, shocked by the possible revelation that his girlfriend wanted to _voluntarily _stay in the hospital for longer.

"It means I don't want to risk that happening again," Star said. "If I jump out of bed and go walk around town, then the next day I might have aches in every part of my body, preventing me from even moving. I may be desperate to get out of here, but I'm not _that _desperate that I'd submit myself to the same pain again." She gulped and stared at the bedsheets, and for a second Marco almost thought she looked afraid. "Never."

"Oh…" Marco said. "Sorry. I guess I just-"

"No, it's okay. And I was actually going back and forth with that one for a long time." Star said. "But you understand, right? I don't want to disappoint you, Marco, but-"

"I understand _perfectly, _Star," Marco reassured her. "You don't have to explain anything like that to me. Trust me. I've gone through pain like that before. And even if it meant saving the entire town and killing Bren, I would never willingly go through it again."

"I mean...in exchange for _that…" _Star started.

"Yeah, you're right, that was a stupid example," Marco said. "But like I was talking about earlier, I think we should still try to do something about all this. If and when the townsfolk learn that the Royals, or at least a few of them, knew about this whole government thing and didn't let it go public, we're going to have a problem on our hands."

"More riots, I know," Star said. "You know, everyone keeps _saying _that there are going to be riots but I never actually _see _any. What's up with that? Was it all just a bunch of hysteria or something?"

"Funny you should mention that…" Angie chimed in, and the two teens turned to look at the woman, who was still looking shell-shocked, but someone remaining coherent in speech. "When Eclipsa called, she mentioned how there was a riot outside the Monster Temple, but Globgor managed to get them to disperse. The riots have already started. I just don't think they're particularly big ones."

"Really," Marco said, looking slightly concerned. "I wonder how he did that. Just told them to screw off? I always thought it would be _Eclipsa _getting rid of the rioters when it came right down to it. Globgor doesn't like doing that sort of thing...or any kind of violence in general."

"I wouldn't say that. Did you see him at the Cornonation?" Star asked. "He might not like fighting, but he'll do anything to protect his family. If those rioters were threatening to storm the Temple...then I have no doubt that he personally gave them the boot."

"That's going to cause a bit of a problem in the PR department," Marco mumbled. "Not that I blame him, but still. If people are getting mad, and the Royals are fighting back, what then? What if they decide to try to break into some _other _castle? One that _isn't _as benevolent? Those other guys will not hesitate to send out their knights and bodyguards to get rid of any mobs gathering on their doorstep. And then a _lot _of blood is going to be spilled. Which will only escalate things _further_. It's…" He groaned and leaned back. "...It's begun then. The end of all of this. Those riots are only the start. Soon enough, Bren will take advantage of the confusion and swoop in to destroy everything. End of story. _Our _story, at least."

"Think you're being a little too pessimistic," Star said. "Yes, those riots are only the start. But if it comes right down to it, we can do whatever's necessary to calm them down and make them go home."

"What does that mean?" Marco asked. "I'm sure that most of the angry people are that way because they don't _have _homes. Where are we going to tell them to go? Random buildings?"

"That's beside the point," Star said. "I meant that if it comes down to it, we can send out the knights and _make _those people go somewhere else before riots start. A show of force. We're already dealing with Bren. We don't need our own _people _screwing things up and ruining it for everyone."

"Hold on…" Marco started. "Are you saying that we turn Earthni into a dictatorship or something?! Where we send out armed goons to shove people off the streets and arrest anyone who doesn't comply? And, "a show of force"? What are you suggesting? That we set a curfew and beat up anyone who isn't inside?"

"I hadn't actually thought of a curfew, but yeah, that works too," Star said.

"I...no. No, we can't do this, Star." Marco protested. "Telling the rioters to stop us one thing. Trying to resolve problems peacefully and all that. But dealing with them with _violence_ is quite another. That won't make them go away! It'll just push them to further violence! I know for a fact that more than a few of them have rifles or pistols for home protection. What if they whip those out and fire them at the goons we send to-"

"They won't be "goons", they'll be knights." Star corrected.

"Well, considering how criminal your suggestion is, I think "goon" is more appropriate," Marco said. "And like I was saying, what if they use guns against us? The _knights _won't be able to do anything about that! I'm pretty sure that the whole reason humans stopped using medieval style metal armor in the first place was because bullets could go through it and thus made it totally useless in wars! Now, maybe Mewman armor is a bit stronger, but it's still not going to be that effective, I'm sure." He took a short breath and then continued. "Star...if we do this then people will die. A _lot _of people. The knights will be forced to fight back against the gun-wielding citizens so that _they _don't die, and then _more _guns will be brought in, and then the cycle will begin again until there's a pile of corpses so large that it holds up the traffic!"

"I'm pretty sure _any-_sized pile of corpses would hold up the traffic," Star said. "But, Marco. I know. I know that things could go bad. But this is a risk I'm willing to take. We are out of money. The police are all gone. The leftover knights are all that is left. Bren could strike and kill us all at any time he wanted. We do _not _need rioters. If they appear on the streets, then it will be the final piece of the puzzle. And in that puzzle is an image of the destruction of Earthni! We have it prevent that no matter what, and if forcing people to piss off and go home is a way to do it, then so be it!"

"Star…" Marco started, using the same tone he had been using for the past five minutes. "That may be true. There may be no other option when it comes to getting the rioters to stop. But that still doesn't take into consideration what I just said. They're going to have Earth weapons. The best the Royals can scrape up in that department is a few guns from the police station that they can hand to the knights, who have _no _idea how to use them and are terrible shots. And don't say that we can get the Mayor to calm them down either, because if he speaks out then the citizens will just lump him in with the rest of us."

"Then we take away all the guns," Star said, crossing her arms. "We send the knights out from house to house to collect all the guns. _Now _the best thing the townsfolk can scrape up is a few gardening tools against metal swords. Now _they're _the ones who stand no chance."

"Star, again, terrible idea," Marco said. "None of those people are going to want to give up their guns. They're scared of Bren. Scared of another demon attack showing up at their door. They don't just want it for protests, they want it to protect themselves against the bigger problem!" He explained. "And plus, it's illegal for us to do that since it goes against the second-"

"Screw the Amendments!" Star shouted. "The government has abandoned us, remember? So why should we give a crap about their laws?! Heck, if doing that makes them send some people down there, then that gives us even _more _incentive! It'd be nice to see any kind of response! Why don't we throw riots against _them _for doing this to us?!"

"..."

"..."

"...Now _that _would end in a bloodbath," Marco said.

"I...I know." Star sighed. "I know, Marco. I'm just trying to think of something. There's too much going on and I want to do all this as fast as possible before they all get _worse._ Only problem is…" She groaned and leaned backward. "...you're right. All my solutions will just accomplish the _opposite _of what I want. _That _is what will make things worse. Even if we beat Bren, what will the townsfolk do then? They're going to hold a grudge if we push them all into their homes. Even if we win against the enemy, our "allies" might still come and get rid of us all in the end. What...what was I even thinking?"

'She summed it up perfectly.' Marco thought. 'But there's no way I'm going to let her sit there and get all sad and depressed. Not like me. I'm never going to let her turn into that.'

With a shrug, Marco got up and embraced Star in another hug, who fumbled with her hands and eventually returned it, like a child desperately grabbing for something. There was no talking this time, no secret whispers, they just stood/lay there, enjoying the warm feeling of their bodies pressing against each other. With a satisfied sigh, Star let go of Marco and flopped back into her bed, her head hitting the pillow as she put on a face that made Marco think she was going to instantly fall asleep.

"Well, I better get started on this garbage…" She mumbled, turning to look at the tray the guard brought in and it's contents. "Still disgusting as ever, but I'm too hungry to care."

"You...want me to get you something from the vending machine?" Marco asked. "Or is this a serious thing, where you can only eat specific foods or you'll die?"

"Oh, I can eat most normal foods. But I'm sure the vending machines are picked clean." Star said. "You're free to go check, however. I'll take _anything _that's left, as long as it's not this."

"Okay," Marco said, pulling out his wallet and making sure that he had money. "I'll go look then. You stay here and...oh, sorry. I didn't-"

"It's fine. Go." Star said, waving him off. She grabbed the tray and pulled the saran wrap off of it, causing a smell to be let loose into the air that immediately made Marco think there was a gas leak. With a single wave back at Star, he walked out of the room (speed-walked) and was met unsurprisingly with the empty hallway.

He then turned to his left and started moving back towards the stairwell, knowing that if there were vending machines anywhere, it'd be the lobby. Before long, however, he noticed that the same guard from earlier who was following him and his mother was tailing him _again, _matching his exact pace. And again, Marco ignored him and continued moving, aware that he was only checking to see if Marco would do anything stupid.

And in a matter of minutes, Marco made it back to the lobby, still as lonely and depressing as ever. He took a quick scan of the room and spotted the vending machines up against the far wall, and Star seemed to have been correct: They looked completely empty.

But on closer inspection, Marco noticed that there _was _something left. An entire row was full, like no one had even noticed that it was there. Marco's bore furrowed in confusion as he approached it, until he realized that the row was full of oatmeal raisin cookies, and then it suddenly made sense.

"...Ah, well. I'm sure Star won't mind at this point. The smell alone from that stuff gives me _enough _of an idea to surmise that it tastes like…" He sighed, putting some money into the machine and buying one of the cookies. He repeated this process two more times, getting cookies for himself and his mother, and after that, he turned tail and nearly ran into the security guard standing right behind him, no more than a few feet away. Since he had pretty much stayed in the shadows the entire time, Marco was once again confused as to why he had chosen _now _to reveal himself, at a time like this.

But after a couple of seconds of him not saying anything, Marco narrowed his eyes out of boredom and continued forward, stepping around the guard and refusing to acknowledge his presence beyond that. The guard watched him go with a disappointed look on his face, and at that moment Marco knew that he was hoping for a better reaction than _that. _

"Probably some dumb intimidation tactic…" He mumbled, as he speed-walked back towards the stairwell. The guard followed him again, looking dejected, something that Marco couldn't care less about. He opened the clear paper-plastic container his cookie was in and began chowing down on it, one bite telling him why these were the only things left in the machine. But at this point, he didn't really care, because the alternative was that slop Star was currently eating.

And...it's not like there was much waiting for him at home, either. Sure, they had a lot of food, thanks to Angie going to the grocery store a day or two before his whole "dying" incident, but most of that was standard stuff. He didn't even have any nachos, and when he snuck out the house late last night (yes, he left the house for a reason that wasn't Star, shocking) to go to the 24/7 grocery, he found that they were fresh out of them. And out of a lot of other stuff too. Eclipsa's words about how they would receive no outside help began to dance in his mind as he stared at some of the empty shelves, and he realized that a shortage of food might become their new _new _problem if all the shipments from outside had been canceled by the government.

And yeah, they had acres and acres of corn, but anyone with half a brain knew that eventually, people would get sick of eating nothing but corn, both physically and mentally. Soon enough all other foods could run out, and even if people started going to grocery stores outside of the town the same way they did with the hospital, then either Bren would put a stop to it or force the government to.

And the real kicker? Since Marco had figured it all out easily enough; the inevitable food shortage, the riots, Bren arriving to destroy everything once and for all; there was only a matter of time until the townsfolk realized it as well.

And then the _real _riots would begin. How long until the water was shut off? The electricity? The plumbing? Just when would Bren order for the things that kept the town together to be shut down so he could enact his final plan? Yes, Bren was apparently "different" now, some whole possession thing, but Marco doubted that his overall goal had changed much. He still hated Star and Earthni.

It was only a matter of time, and by the time Marco finished that thought, he realized that he had _also _finished his cookie. The taste had been so bland that he hadn't even noticed. He frowned in disappointment, now seeing _again _why no one would buy this thing, and shoved the wrapper in his pocket. He then took a brief glance at his surroundings (because his brain had been auto-pilot for that entire internal conversation), and saw that he was still on the staircase, just next to the door that led to the level Star was on. With a depressed sigh, he pushed it open and just jogged the rest of the way to her door, not caring if it made him look suspicious or not. Once he was there he pushed _that _door open and was greeted with a familiar sight.

His mom was still sitting down, although now she looked like she was merely thinking to herself instead of having a nervous breakdown, and Star was eating that disgusting slop, clearly struggling to choke it down. She spotted Marco entering and tried to smile at him, but only managed a frown.

"I'm back." He announced, as only one of the two people mentioned had noticed he arrived. "And I got snacks for us all. These were the only things available, so sorry if they aren't that good."

"Marco, I don't _care _what you got me, as long as isn't more of this," Star said, as Marco tossed the cookie over to her. "Just give it to me and...oh." She groaned softly, as she finally took note of what the "snack" Marco brought was. "Okay. That explains why it was the only one left."

"Yeaaaaaaaah," Marco said awkwardly. "If you want, I can try to-"

"No, it's still okay," Star replied, ripping open the wrapper and tossing it in the vomit bowl next to her bed. "I may not like these, but as I told you: Preferable to _this." _She then took a bite and looked like she regretted it immediately. Marco grinned and then walked over to his mom, eventually resorting to snapping his fingers in her face to get her attention.

"Hm? Oh, sorry, Marco." She said, taking the cookie without even glancing at it. "I was just thinking about what you and Star told me. I was wondering if we should go to the grocery store again after this. That information is out, and I'm worried-"

"Mom, I'm sure it's gonna be fine." Marco lied. "The people in this town can get a little...crazy at times, but deep down they just want what's best for their families. I'm sure that if Eclipsa and Globgor show them that throwing a riot is _not _that, then nobody will do anything bad."

"I'm more worried about something else." Star chimed in, slowly picking all the raisins out of her cookie. "That Fire-god. That big, evil jerk that's behind all of this. I was hoping to discuss this later, but I don't want to wait any longer. I'd like to know what Eclipsa and Globgor plan to do against that. Even if the riots are stopped, as well as Bren, maybe imprisoned or better yet, killed, that God will still be hanging over the town."

"I'm trying to make her _less _worried, Star." Marco mouthed to the girl, and Star's face dropped. He took one last glance at his mother and then walked over to the bed, sitting down on the chair next to it. "And I don't think he's really evil." He continued. "When I was talking to him...oh. Crap, I just remembered…"

"Just remembered what?" Star asked, before realization flashed across her face. "Oh right, you're not allowed to talk about your encounter, right? He'll get all angry or something. Ugh. That sucks. I'm sure he told you plenty of things that could be useful, if only we were _allowed _to know them."

"I'm not so sure about the second part," Marco said. "Most of the stuff I learned wouldn't be useful as of right now, and honestly, with the way things are going, I have a feeling he might have lied about a few things."

"Wouldn't be surprised," Star said. "Glossaryck was the same. He didn't lie, really, but he never quite told the truth either."

Marco nodded. "Remember that time he ran around on all fours for months yelling "Globgor" just to screw with us?"

Stat shook her head and chuckle-coughed. "How could I forget? I swear, if he hadn't floated away on that umbrella right after, I'm sure I would have tried to throttle him."

"I'm sure we've all wanted to do that at one point or another. But I kind of miss the guy, you know?" Marco sighed. "He was super annoying and rarely did anything useful, but it was still nice having him around for things."

"I get what you mean," Star said. "But I didn't regret destroying the magic. Nope. Not one bit. Never in a million years. Doesn't matter what it's brought with it, doesn't matter who. I will never-"

"Okay, Star, I believe you," Marco said. "I always will. Just because Bren is here because of magic being gone, that doesn't mean you're to blame. We didn't know what would happen. How could we? The people at fault here at obviously Bren himself and that Fire-god."

"I know," Star said. "But I still can't help but feel guilty every now and then."

"I've actually been thinking about that," Marco said. "And I may have a way that we can get the Fire-god to leave us alone."

"What's that?"

"Ehhh...well, that's just it. I can't tell you." Marco said. "It concerns something it said to me while I was dead, which you obviously know I'm not allowed to talk about. I mean, maybe he isn't watching me right now, but considering that he is also a _god..._I'm sure that it isn't much of a stretch for him to be in multiple places at once."

Star groaned. "Maybe you could sign language it. He said you can't talk about it, right? Did he say anything about _that?"_

"I'm sure he meant that I'm not allowed to tell anybody about it in any way," Marco said. "So no, I can't sign language it. And I don't even know sign language, and neither do you."

"Shame," Star said. "Maybe after all this is finished we can learn it. So we can have secret conversations in public about anyone knowing what we're saying. Because I seriously doubt that many people in this town have bothered to learn either. I don't think there are any deaf people in Echo Creek…and anyone on Mewni with that disability was just killed at a young age for being useless."

"Yeesh," Marco said. "I guess there's no room for people they deem as useless in that sort of society. But why haven't I heard of that before? I'm pretty sure that a law like that would have been appealed by the council, and I don't remember-"

"Everyone met beforehand in a Mewni-only Council and agreed to just silently get rid of it right then and there. Less hassle." Star said. "There's a lot of stuff we did in that meeting. I remember we spent a lot of time on how we would conquer Earth if it ever came to that." She chuckled. "Course, every plan we came up with was made pointless when they heard about the kind of weaponry that Earth had. I didn't tell them because I wanted to see the looks on their faces. All that confidence fading away...it was honestly pretty fun to watch."

"And that was the only part of the weapons meeting that could be considered fun," Marco said. "But back to what we were talking about, I don't think we can get rid of the Fire-god in a way that I'm allowed to tell you about. At least not by ourselves. I believe Janna has a spell that could get rid of their influence in a person, _which would have been useful earlier, _but I think that tad far as it goes when it comes to getting rid of him. It's in the name. He's a god. There's not much we puny mortals can do."

"Like hell," Star said. "What does he want?"

"What does he _want?" _Marco asked. "Uh...for Bren to succeed? I'm pretty sure you already knew that, Star."

"Bullshit," Star growled. "That's not what he wants. If that was it, then we'd all be dead already. It's like you mentioned just a second ago. He's a god. If he's so great and powerful, then why hasn't he just wiped us off the face of the Earth entirely? It seriously shouldn't be that hard!"

"Maybe he wants to drag this out?" Marco suggested, really wishing he could tell Star what the Fire-god said to him right about now. "He did seem to have a peculiar personality when I met him. Kinda human-like, if I'm being honest. And one of humanity's most diverse traits is cruelty. Maybe that's what this is? Just cruelty?"

"I still think it's something else," Star said. "Cruelty, shmuelty. If he was so cruel, then he'd come down and unplug my life support system right while you were hugging me. Force you to die in my arms just like you died in like back in that van. Bring it all full circle. If he's dragging this out for fun, there are a _lot _worse things he could do than this garbage."

"Um, don't give him any ideas," Marco suggested. "But I guess you're right there. Maybe he doesn't want to do that, then? Or maybe it's like a tidal wave. The water level drops before the big load comes in."

"Tidal waves are disasters, Marco." Star pointed out. "If the explosion was the water level dropping, then whatever happens _next _is sure to kill us all."

"That's what I meant," Marco said, before thinking to himself. 'God, this is so annoying! If only I could at least _mention _a few of the things the Fire-god told me about that. That other god it stole the resurrection from, the fact that these gods are the only thing keeping humanity around, and the whole afterlife or reincarnation thing, even though that wouldn't be useful...and I'd probably keep it to myself anyway. I don't think people would be happy if I start saying things that denounce their whole religion. But regardless, can't I get some sort of pass? Just for this?'

'...'

'I guess not.' Marco sighed. 'Fine. Whatever. I'll live with this for now. But if you're somehow listening to my thoughts, you bastard, then know this: I will find a way to get rid of the whole stupid thing. Maybe drinking that potion, inventing a whole new one, I don't know! But I will get rid of you!'

"I take your silence as more agreement to what I was saying," Star said, snapping Marco out of his head and realizing that he had zoned out again. "But, uh...I kinda have to go to the bathroom, so I'm sorry, but you guys are gonna have to leave."

"Oh." Marco said. "We can't wait for you outside or…?"

"Definitely not." Star said.

"Okay. Okay." Marco replied, trying not to show how disappointed he was. So he stepped forward for the final time and gave Star another hug, which she returned as best she could. "I'll see you around, Star. I'll make sure to call as soon as possible."

"I'll be looking forward to it." Star said, as they let go of each other. "Bye, Marco. I love you."

"...I love you too, Star." Marco said, trying to hide the blush on his face. "...Goodbye."

And with that, he sighed happily, waved goodbye to Star one final time, and he and Angie left the room, the latter giving Star a wave of her own. But then she paused for a moment and looked back at Star, who seemed to be fidgeting in her bed.

"Star…" She started. "When you get out of the hospital, would you like to come stay with us? I know you've already been doing that recently, but well, if you want to stay with your mother or Eclipsa to help them deal with the current crisis, then that's perfectly fine. So I was just wondering if-"

"I'm staying with you guys," Star announced. "Marco obviously needs me around him. He was really trying his best to act happy. And while _some _of it was genuine, I can tell that he still needs help. And if I'm the cure for this little spark of sadness he's currently going through, then there's no way I'm not going to hang around him as often as possible until it's gone entirely."

"I see. T-thank you." Angie said, her voice trembling only the tiniest bit. "I know it hasn't even been that long since he started doing this, but Rafael and I have been trying our hardest, and nothing seems to be working. He's just sat in his room all day, not making a noise and keeping completely to himself. And while I'm sure it is normal for most teenagers to do this…" She chuckled, before returning to her morose attitude. "I'm sure it isn't because of puberty, and that it's not going to go away by itself."

"Yeah. I could tell." Star said. "But what _have _you two done? Had he even come down to eat dinner? Make nachos? Watch movies with you guys? _Anything? _Did he even watch that show about penguins he likes that airs every week? If I remember correctly, that should have been last night."

"Actually, yes, he watched the penguin show," Angie confirmed. "Although he did seem rather irked when we sat down besides him, and left the second it was over just a _little _too eagerly. As for the other things...that's about it. I was woken up in the middle of the night by what I thought was a robber, but when I went to investigate it was just Marco scrounging around in the kitchen eating leftovers. Not that dignified of a sight."

"Yeesh," Star said. "Okay, I'll try to see if I can get out early like Janna did. Although I'm sure she bought her way out, and anything else she said was a lie. But either way, I promise to leave this place as soon as possible. Not just for the sake of my taste buds, but also for Marco. I'm not going to sit by and watch him turn into an even _sadder _mess than he is now. I promise."

"Thank you again, Star," Angie said. "Now I should probably go. I have no doubt that Marco is getting impatient. See you soon."

"See ya!" Star said, and a second later Angie left the room, gently shutting the door behind him. Star took in the silence for a second before sighing and staring out the window, or more specifically, at the piece of plywood.

"I'm out in three days, or else I'm smashing right through that plywood and leaving myself…"

* * *

"So," Angie said, as she turned on the car and started to move it out of the parking space. "That was a nice visit, wasn't it, Marco? You got to see Star again, she's okay and she's likely going to come home soon...wasn't that nice?"

"Sure was." Marco said, who wasn't _quite _back to his "old without-Star self", but was definitely getting there. "I'm just glad she didn't force me to taste that glop they served her. Just the smell made me want to throw up."

"I actually tried some of it while you were gone," Angie revealed. "Star offered it to me to help me get my mind off...things. And I must say, it worked, but...I don't think I'll be able to eat anything pudding-like in my life ever again."

Marco laughed. "I can imagine." He said. "That stuff looked like it had been made in Hell's Kitchen. _Actual _Hell."

"I'm sure they could make something better than _that, _even in the Underworld," Angie said. "When I met your friend Tom, he was so polite and nice to me! Since he was a literal demon, I expected worse, but I guess those are stereotypes for you."

"All stereotypes started for a reason," Marco said. "Trust me, mom, most demons are exactly what you'd expect. Sure, there are a few nice ones, but most act like...well, _demons. _And Tom used to be such a jerk too. He tried to kill me on multiple occasions. All because of Star."

"What?!" Angie said, looking like she was about to brake the car and bring them both to a screeching halt. "I don't believe I knew about this. Why did he try to kill you? Were you fighting over Star?"

"Ehhh...I guess you could say that." Marco mumbled. "But really, it was more that I crashed a party that he invited Star to and became her soul mate under the light of the blood moon, an event that happens every three hundredish years. And bonding his soul with Star's is what _he _wanted to do, so he got really angry and tried to murder me and Star was forced to stop him by freezing him." He sighed again and gazed out the window. "And then he came back a few times, we played for my life over a game of ping-pong, and eventually...we reached a mutual understanding. It definitely took a while, but we're good friends now. I just hope he's okay by the end of this. Not only do we have to stop Bren, but we have to save Tom and his parents as well. I don't want them to die by the end of this."

"That's...actually nice. You did have a talent for making friends when you were younger. I'm glad to see it stuck with you. And...that's the most you've spoken to me directly in the past two days." Angie quipped. "Looks like reminiscing on the past is helping. Why don't you tell me another story?"

"Another? I don't even know what to tell you." Marco muttered. "There are so many things you don't know about or only know a _little _about. The whole Toffee crisis where I thought Star had died, the time Meteora grew to the size of a building and _literally _sucked my soul out of my body…" He trembled before continuing. "...Babysitting Buff Frog's babies and giving them food poisoning, almost getting killed by a psycho librarian in Kelly's dimension, almost getting _smashed _against a cliff face by a giant fist in the Neverzone...lots of crazy stuff."

"Maybe we could talk about a time where you or someone you knew _didn't _almost die?" Angie suggested, a sheepish and worried expression on her face.

"Oh, I have tons of those. And most of those situations turned out okay in the end, even if the lead-up was complicated." Marco said. "Hmm...there was this time that Star and I fought against each other when I wanted to prove myself that I was strong enough to beat Mariposa. And before you get worried, no, we weren't trying to actually hurt each other, Star was being just as careful as I was, I'm sure."

"Hopefully," Angie said, with arched eyebrows. "But how was that fun, exactly?"

"I guess it kinda reminded me of how we used to fight monsters together," Marco said. "Seeing all her old spells, battling an opponent that's actually in my league, unlike Toffee, and...I guess it was just fun? Even though anyone walking in at the time would have automatically assumed the opposite. _They _would have thought that we were going full-out. And...I guess we sorta were, in a way. Besides not using her butterfly form, Star wasn't holding back at the end. She used her most powerful spell on me."

"The spider with a top hat?"

"Hey, you remembered!" Marco exclaimed happily, before looking back out the window. "Yeah. The spider. Those were some good times. And like I said, beating up all of Ludo's monsters was fun too. They never learned. We must have beaten them up a dozen times over before Toffee arrived onto the scene and got them into shape. Huh…" He rested a hand on his chin. "...I wonder where all of them are now? I hope they survived the explosion. They didn't really seem like bad guys, they were just following orders. I'm sure we could have become friends as we did with Lobster claws...sorta."

"Perhaps you can check later in the Monster village," Angie suggested. "But for now, let's get home. Is there anything specific you want for dinner? Or want to do tonight?"

"Ehmm…" Marco hummed. "I would have said nachos, but we don't have any. Maybe we could swing by that smaller grocery store on the edge of town. The one that I'm sure hardly _anyone _goes to. I would have checked it already, but I didn't have the time. Or...incentive."

"That's okay. We can go right now, Marco." Angie said, trying to hide her excitement that Marco had _accepted _her proposition of sitting down at the table and having dinner like a true family should. "I think I know where it is. I'll just turn off here and…" She made a few turns and eventually started driving in a part of the town that could politely be described as "dirty". However, it still had its charm, and it was not that heavily damaged, so thankfully the roads were mostly clear of debris.

"So, Marco." Angie continued. "I was also thinking that tomorrow you could go see your friends Ferguson and Alphonso. You mentioned that you hadn't seen them in a long time, so I think it would be a nice surprise if you showed up and wanted to hang out with them, or do whatever it is teenagers do nowadays."

"Oh yeah," Marco said softly. "Those guys. We were just talking about them, weren't we? I don't even know if they're dead or alive, and they're probably thinking about me the same way." He sighed. "I guess maybe I could call them. See how they're doing. But I'm not sure if I want to hang out. Unless they...come over to my place, or something, we can play some games together and they can leave...um…"

Angie sighed like Marco just did, taking note of how hard he was struggling to not just flat out say, "I don't want them to come over, I just want to stay in my room like I've been doing". Although he had been in seemingly good spirits for most of the car ride, it didn't take a genius to see that he was slowly reverting back to his sad self, just like Angie predicted he would.

"It's okay, Marco." She said. "If you don't want them to come over, I won't force it. But I do want you to call them or text them or do _something. _Like you mentioned, you don't know how they're doing and they don't know how you're doing. And it would show that you care about them if you tried to communicate."

"I...okay," Marco said, accepting this small defeat. "What about Jackie? Do you want me to call her too?"

"It wouldn't hurt," Angie said, before pausing and thinking to herself. "Actually, no. Don't tell her. Don't tell her anything."

"Really? Why?" Marco asked.

"Because she doesn't know about any of this, and because of that she's safe," Angie explained. "I've met Jackie a few times. She's a very nice girl that I don't want to see getting hurt or getting mixed up with any of this. And if you tell her about Bren and what's happening, she might want to come back and...well, get herself hurt. It may be cruel to her in the long run, but if it will keep one more resident of this town from dying, then I think she shouldn't have to know about anything."

"...Wow. Okay." Marco said, clearly shocked by his mother's decision. "I have to admit, I didn't expect _that. _But...when she comes back eventually, which may not be for another month, will all this even be over? Or what if it is over, and we've lost? Her parents came with her, and she doesn't have any other relatives living in Echo Creek to my knowledge, but her house and most of her belongings are still here. And if Bren wins, then I don't think _anything _is going to be left, that house included."

"I know. That's why I said it was cruel." Angie replied. "But I'm sure they'd rather lose their house than their life. And Jackie's girlfriend...sorry, I can't remember her name, maybe her family in France can take them in for a while. While they get things sorted out. And I remember correctly, Jackie's house is more on the edge of the neighborhood, closer to the edge of the town. So even if Bren sets off a giant bomb right in the middle of it, I'm sure there'll be _something _they can scavenge."

"..."

"..."

"This is getting too depressing to talk about. And that's something I don't need more of." Marco said.

"Sorry," Angie said. "Just staying what I think. But do you agree with me? I won't stop you if you want to contact her, but I do think that it's best if-"

"I won't. You're right." Marco said. "And I'm sure that if they saw what was going on here, they'd just come back, grab all their stuff, and get out. Which is something I'm surprised I haven't seen it heard more of. I figured that after the explosion, at least half the town would have gotten the hell out of here."

"Language, please, Marco." Angie reminded him. "But, Marco, it's for the same reason that I haven't "rented" a moving truck, packed as much of our things inside it as we could, thrown you and Rafael in our car, and then drove away as fast as possible. This place is still our home. We can't abandon it to a madman. We have to defend it as best we can. And even if everyone leaves, then Bren might just follow and take the fight to other cities. The more people that leave, the more they might end up dead. So we have to take care of the problem _here, _for their sake."

"Speaking of other cities…" Marco mumbled. "Can't we send our messengers or something? People that can tell the world what's going on? If enough of us spread the word, then the government can cover it _all _up. Something will get out, that will spread, and then the public outcry could very well _force _them to abandon their deal with Bren and send in someone to stop him."

"Messengers?" Angie echoed. "I guess that could work. But there is something I'm wondering about...it's been on my mind ever since the hospital, when it became public that the government was behind no one knowing about us."

"And that is…?"

"Why hasn't something like that happened already?" Angie asked. "The hospitals from other towns are apparently taking in people, so a massive influx of injured monsters, Mewmans, and humans into them should have caused some sort of news presence. But it hasn't. Nobody is here. And I'm beginning to wonder...if those ambulances ever arrived at those hospitals in the first place."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Marco asked. "Of course they did. Eclipsa called them and got confirmation."

"Called them?" Angie said. "Or called someone _pretending _to be them? Marco...I'm thinking that not a single person has successfully left the town limits since all this began. I think that something is keeping us in, preventing us from leaving."

"Mom...now is not the time to become a conspiracy theorist," Marco said. "I'm sure that-"

"I'm checking."

"What?"

"I'm checking," Angie repeated. "I'm going to drive to the edge of town and leave the city _right now. _I'm going to keep driving until we get to another town, or are stopped by something else."

"...Mom, you're acting too impulsive." Marco pointed out. "This isn't like you. And while I get that you may be erratic after hearing the news about the government and stuff back at the hospital, we shouldn't be forming theories that have no real evidence."

"Marco, I already gave you the evidence," Angie said. "Nobody has come to help us, even though allegedly, people have gone to other towns to get help at hospitals. Again, if they suddenly saw this many injured people arriving, they would immediately suspect something! And any people at that hospital who weren't doctors would have taken photos of videos of this massive throng of people arriving and posted them online. The images would have spread like wildfire across the world, _especially _since they were of people from Earthni, which _was _the world's number one tourist destination until...all this." She sighed. "And that's another thing. There were days when the number of visitors in town far eclipsed the number of actual _residents_. Tens of thousands of people, to the point where we had to have checkpoints made to turn people away once a certain number arrived. And yet, I haven't seen a single tourist for what's felt like two weeks now. Which means the government is probably keeping them out. And the best way to do _that _is to make an artificial barrier around the town that we're now aware of. One that will _also _keep us in."

"Mom…" Marco started, unsure if he wasn't believing this because he genuinely thought it was crazy, or if he just didn't _want _to believe it. "...If that's true, then we shouldn't go and check. If they were _just _keeping people from leaving, then the wounded they sent to other hospitals would have come back after they were told they couldn't leave. But they haven't. If your theory is true...then what does that tell you? And take into account Bren's complete ability to _not care _about the lives of anyone in Echo Creek."

"..."

"Dead, mom. It means they're dead." Marco said. "More likely than not they were shot on sight with their cars carted away and thrown in a random junkyard. You do understand that if _my _theory is true, and if _your _theory is true, then if we try to leave we're not making it back?"

"..."

"...Mom," Marco said. "Please say something. Before you drive us into a death trap."

"..."

"Mom!"

"..."

"MOM!" Marco shouted, as Angie continued to drive. "Don't let me die again!"

_That _got her attention.

Angie got the brakes suddenly, causing them both to lurch forward, only saved from being launched out the windshield by their seatbelts. Marco let out a dramatic _OOF _as the seatbelt slammed into his dormant and nearly made him throw up on the spot, to the point where he had to kneel over and hold on to the glove compartment for comfort. Angie didn't have any of these problems, hardly even reacting to the sudden stop like her son had. She simply stared straight ahead, their car stuck right in the middle of the road like it had stalled out.

"Uh, mom?" Marco said, slowly recovering and looking in the car's mirrors. "You stopped in the middle of the road. Do you think you can get us moving again before someone comes up behind us-"

"I'm so sorry, Marco." She said softly.

"Huh?"

"I'm so sorry." She repeated, turning to him with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry that you had to go through all that. I'm sorry if we're not trying our hardest to make you feel better. I'm sorry that you had to see me like this and that you can't have Star there for you and-"

"Okay, stop!" Marco interjected. "Mom, we already had one of these discussions before we even drove to the hospital. In the foyer, remember? And I forgave you for everything, and then we moved on like nothing happened. You don't have to apologize twice for something. Especially when most of those things aren't your fault in the slightest."

"But I'm not sure if I think the same way!" Angie sobbed. "I should have come with Eclipsa, Star, and Janna in that little car to go get you. Maybe if I had been there, maybe if I was there for you, there might have been something that I could have-"

"Mom, there was nothing you could have done," Marco said. "If Star replayed the events of that day to me correctly, then I was already dead before they even arrived. My heart hadn't stopped, sure, but the inevitability was that I was going to die. Heck, if you had come along they might have arrived _later, _due to you trying to figure out how to fit four passengers in that tiny thing, if that's even possible!"

"...I still should have been there," Angie said.

"No, you shouldn't have," Marco said. "And I don't think you really _wished _you could have been there either. Because when Star was telling me the events, you stayed behind, and seemed quite adamant that they leave you and just get going, instead of trying to figure out another way to fit in the car. And that stuck with me. I don't think you wanted to be there because you were afraid of what you might find if you arrived. What happened to me...was exactly what you were afraid of seeing, wasn't it?"

Angie didn't speak, but the expression that suddenly crossed her face told Marco everything he needed to know, including the fact that he was correct.

"Yeah. I thought so." He said. And I don't blame you for that. Not at all. It's like I just mentioned. There's nothing you could have done about it. Even if by some hypothetical scenario you somehow managed to get in the car, it would have been too late. It would have _always _been too late, mom." Marco explained. "That's just the plain truth of it, and something you need to understand. I'm already a giant mess, I'm not going to bother to hide it, and the last thing I want is for you and dad to turn into ones too."

"But...I could have done something." Angie claimed, making Marco almost shake with frustration. "Back at the house, before you went to the Sanctuary, you were possessed. I should have tried to stop you then. I shouldn't have gone after your father, I should have made sure that you were okay."

"Mom, the whole point is that I was _possessed, _and the person who possessed me would make sure you didn't find out if they didn't want you to!" Marco said. "That's not your fault either! Not even close!"

"Even so," Angie said. "I'm your mother. I know you better than anyone...except maybe Star. It's my job to spot signs that something is wrong with you before it's too late. If that happens again, and I'm still unable to see the signs, then can I even call myself your mother?"

'God, how did we get from talking about grocery stores to this?' Marco thought, wanting nothing more than to bang his head against the glove compartment until he knocked himself out. "Yes, mom, of course you can. No matter what you do, no matter what you think, you'll always be my mother in my eyes. You don't have to ever worry about that. No one blames you for not seeing the signs, and I get why you might blame yourself. It's only natural."

"But-"

"Nope, not done yet," Marco interjected. "And going back to the whole, "I should have been there for you back in the car", again, _I get it. _If by some hypothetical scenario Star and I have kids in the future or something, I'm sure I would never want to see them like that either. I've spent years protecting her from all the weird crap we've been through. Even if she doesn't want my help! I may not be a parent, but I think I'm getting an idea of what it's like to be one. And if Star got hurt, or if my hypothetical kids got hurt, then yeah, I'd hate to see it. But I would still try to remain strong. For them. No matter what. And _that _is the person I need you to be right now, mom. For me, for dad, for everyone."

"..."

"Now...do you think you can do that?" Marco asked. "Or do you want me to explain it all over again? Because I'm happy to do it as many times as you need me to until-"

"No, I think I finally understand," Angie said. "I know, Marco. I know I shouldn't be blaming myself, but I can't help it. Everything I see happen to you, every wound, every injury...I feel it like it's my own. I just want to keep you as safe as possible, and that's why I _still _want to go to the edge of town to see if anything is there."

"Oh my god." Marco said. "Mom, did that huge conversation we just had even matter? Come on! I thought-"

"Please, Marco.' Angie begged, turning and meeting her son's eyes.

"What?"

"Just...please let me do this for you."

"...'

"..."

* * *

'I can't believe I agreed to do this.' Marco thought, as the derelict and ruined buildings situated on the town's edge was all that now filled his field of view. 'Two things could happen here. One, there actually is a government barricade trapping us all in, and they will shoot and kill us the second they spot us, and I don't think the Fire-god will be that eager to bring me back this time. Two, there is nothing like that there, we have been wasting time, and my mom's mood will worsen even more. Either way, we lose and get nowhere. This is a complete...ah, I can't put it like that without sounding redundant.' He sighed again. 'Maybe I can still try to convince her to turn around...no, you promised. If you do that now, Marco, then you'll be going back on your word. _Another _situation in which we all lose.'

"Almost there…" Angie said, as the last building faded out of view. Soon there was nothing but a dusty field, whose road led to the next city over. Tourists had always complained about how the entrance to the city wasn't very "inviting" but Eclipsa and the council didn't care. The "dust field" was actually a sacred and ancient Mewman battlefield that had a road implanted into it, and the council preferred if nothing else changed. Yes, it was still just an empty field, with no evidence that it was a battlefield or even of importance, but still. It was a valuable part of Mewman history, and they didn't want it changed. End of the story to that whole scenario.

But at least it made for easy driving. The road was flat, there were very few potholes, and Angie hardly even had to keep her eyes on the road.

At least, until the dust storm picked up. Like the weather itself was angry at then, a sudden cloud of dirt and dust blew towards the car and engulfed it out of nowhere, surprising both of the vehicles off the road occupants. It wasn't doing any damage, or even blowing the car over in the slightest, it just obscured their field of view a lot. Angie slowed down a bit in case a sudden obstacle came along, and Marco squinted his eye to get a better view of what was outside the window.

And then he saw it.

A van. Laying in the brambles on its side. Looking like it had crashed, and nobody had bothered to come out here to pick it up. He stared at it in confusion until it was out of view, his mouth hanging open slightly. Because, again, the Council liked this area free of any outside things. If a van crashed there, they would have it removed immediately, without question. So for them to just leave it there…

Well, something was definitely up.

"Uh, hey, mom?" He asked, turning back to Angie. "Did you see that?"

"See what?" Angie asked.

"That van," Marco said, pointing out the window at the barren landscape. "Didn't you see it? It was lying on its side and looked like it had been attacked with a rocket launcher!"

"No…" Angie replied. "I was looking at the van on my side of the road."

"...What are you talking about?" Marco asked.

"There was a van, similar to the one you just described, on _my _side of the road," Angie said. "Only it was upside down instead of on its side. I was looking at _that._ Are you sure that you weren't looking at the same one I was?"

"Unless space itself is in a fritz, yes, I'm sure," Marco said. "I wasn't looking at your side of the road at all. But you saw a van...and I saw one...are you seriously telling me that we both saw a wrecked car on the side of the road at the exact same time?"

"..."

"..."

"...I'm not sure what to say to that," Angie said. "But I'm going to keep going. Maybe the owners just wanted to leave it there after the crash for whatever reason and-"

"No, no, something is wrong," Marco said. "Remember where we are. Remember why it's still a cesspool of dust and emptiness. This is sacred Mewman ground or whatever. They wouldn't just _leave _a trashed van in a place where they refused just to build a _fence _around. And they sent someone out here every week to check it out. My van looked like it had been there for...a while, so what gives? Shouldn't they have packed it all up on a truck and carried it out of here?"

"Maybe they haven't had the time," Angie suggested. "A lot is going on right now. They might not want to waste any resources on a trivial matter like this."

"It's not trivial," Marco said. "If you were in the Council meeting when we discussed this, you'd understand. But I think we're missing the main point of this. If both of those vans were there, how were they destroyed? That did _not look _like someone had swerved off the road and hit a rock or something. I'm pretty sure I saw _scorch _marks on that thing." Marco gulped and then looked out the window again, his eyes widening to comical levels when he saw a car door on the side of the road, half of it looking like it had partially _melted. _He waited until they have passed it to say anything, his mind almost paralyzing him with fear.

"Mom…" He said. "Turn the car around. I think you should turn the car around _right now."_

"Not yet," Angie said. "We still haven't-"

"Mom, I just saw a car door that looked like it had been thrown into molten metal. And judging by the distance, there's _no _way it was part of the two cars we saw earlier. There was a third one around here that "crashed" too! I'm going to admit it. I think you're right. There's something keeping us in the town. And I think that _our _car is going to turn out like the ones we just saw if you don't get us out of here!"

"Marco, just because…" Angie started, before her gaze drifted off to something on the side of the road. Marco followed her eyes and he gasped when he saw what she was seeing, which was a burned-out husk of an ambulance. And it looked very _recent. _Like whatever had done that to it only happened a day or so ago. And the worst part? Marco almost thought he could see a body or two poking out of the front window, still strapped in with their seat belts.

Once they passed it, Marco slowly turned to Angie and spoke again, his voice deadly calm but serious.

"Mom." He said. "You'd know I would never want to harm you in any way, but you're either going to turn this car around and get us out of here, or I'm going to knock you out and do it myself _before _whatever destroyed that ambulance comes for us next."

"..."

"..."

"Okay. Okay." Angie said quickly, slowly bringing the car to a stop and preparing to turn it around. "Just have to be careful...have to be...be...Marco, what is that?"

"What is what?" Marco asked in exasperation. "Just get us _out _of here-"

"_That," _Angie said, pointing a finger out the front window. Marco resisted the urge to grab the steering wheel and looked, where he saw what his mother was talking about. In the distance, through the storm of dust, he could see what seemed to be _lights_. Lights similar to one might see at a lighthouse, moving through the dust and going over areas in a pattern.

'What the hell?' Marco thought. 'What are _those? _Something Bren set up? Or the Fire-god? They look like giant flashlights, or lamps, or...or..._searchlights.' _His heart nearly jumped out of his chest as he came to this conclusion, right at the unfortunate moment when one of the lights rapidly approached from the side and fell on them. It stopped in place and turned a bright red in color, and instantly what sounded like a faint air-raid siren rang through the air, causing the other lights to fall on their position as well.

"MOM! GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE NOW!" Marco screamed, and Angie didn't waste another second, flooring the gas pedal and turning the car around. They roared back the way they came, any care for crashing long gone. The lights stayed on them, unfortunately, and the sirens didn't become any quieter. Marco turned around to look back at them, where he saw _more _lights pop up…

...And then fade. It took him only half a second to register what they had been, and before Angie could do anything he grabbed the steering wheel and jerked or to the left, just as an insanely loud sound exploded right next to them in a cloud of dirt and debris. Angie screamed so loud that it almost overtook the sound of the explosion, and Marco jerked the steering wheel back to the right, before going back to the left, and repeating this so the car was moving in a serpentine formation. Both of them could barely hear after this, so even what Angie yelled next was almost indistinguishable to marco.

"MARCO, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" She cursed, momentarily shocking him for her uncharacteristic swearing. "Did someone just fire a-"

"Rocket or bomb at us? Yes." Marco said, trying to remain as calm as possible despite his heart feeling like it was going two hundred fifty beats per minute. "This is exactly what you and I were scared of. Your barrier theory was correct, and they don't want anyone to leave. And I guess they're willing to take _any _measure to ensure that."

"But...then that means...everyone in those ambulances-"

"Dead, but we can't do anything about that now!" Marco said. "I'm sure if we had gone a little further, we would have seen a _lot _more cars on the side of the road. And the ones we already saw...I'm guessing just got blown all the way back there."

"Oh my god…" Angie said. "I...I didn't want to believe it. It was just a theory, I never thought in my heart that it was true, that all those people had been-!"

"Well, next time you come up with a theory, don't have such good evidence for it!" Marco suggested. "But hey, look on the bright side. If we somehow manage to escape this, we can tell Eclipsa and she can prevent anyone else from leaving and dying. And speaking of escaping…"

Marco then looked in the rearview mirror, where he saw another flash spark up then fade. He gulped and felt his entire body tense up, ready to move the wheel to avoid being hit. A second later a huge shape appeared in the dust, and that was all Marco needed to guess it's trajectory. He threw the wheel to a hard left, resulting in the missile blowing up _right next to _them and blowing out their windows on that side of the car. Angie screamed again and lowered her head down to shield herself from the glass, while Marco grit his teeth as several shards implanted themselves in his hands and arms. The explosion itself heated up the car to what felt like two hundred degrees from a fraction of a second, making Marco feel like his eyeballs were about to melt right out of his head. Thankfully, it passed as they left the crater behind, although both of them were trembling from realizing how close they were to death.

"I thought that was going to tip the car over!" Angie said. "Marco, are you-"

"Not...really," Marco said, glancing down at his now blood-stained arms and hands. Angie sucked her breath in and moved to help him, but Marco quickly swatted her hands away.

"No!" He said. "We don't have time to deal with that! We'll take care of it _after _we're out of danger. Which will be when these dang spotlights get themselves off us! And they...have not yet. Based on how fast we're going, I say we have a mile until we get back to town. And I'm going to guess that we're going to have to dodge one more of those things. Shouldn't be too hard, we managed to elude the first two, as long as...they don't fire multiple at once." He gulped and looked behind him again, where right on schedule, he saw _two _lights flash and then vanish, resulting in him cursing his own words. He continued staring at the direction they came, not even blinking as he started to speak.

"Mom. When I say, brake. Brake as hard as you can."

"Brake? But why-"

"Just do it or we die!" Marco shouted, and Angie players before nodding her head. Marco kept a close eye on the sky above, and no more than a second later he spotted the two dreaded missiles approaching.

"NOW! BRAKE NOW!" He said, and Angie did as she was told, taking her foot off the gas pedal and stomping it down on the brake. The car was brought to another screeching halt as the back wheels were nearly lifted off the road, and Marco grabbed his mother's head and forced it downwards before diving under the dashboard. A millisecond later, the missiles struck the road in front of them in another massive explosion, blowing out the _front_ window this time and scattering more glass shards all along the front of the car-thankfully avoiding it's two occupants, saved due to Marco's quick thinking.

But the moment the fire had disappeared and the sound was no longer loud enough to pop a person's eardrums, Marco yanked his mother's head back up, who was hitting one of her ears like there was something stuck in it.

"Go! Go to the side of the road and drive around the hole!" He yelled, and even though Angie felt like she had been deafened in one ear, she obeyed, moving the car forward and quickly maneuvering it around the two giant holes that the explosives had left in the road. Once she was around them she moved back to the center of the asphalt and took off again, hoping that they were far away enough that whatever was shooting at them couldn't get a clean shot.

And her hopes were right. A moment later the ever-present searchlights blinked out a few times and then vanished altogether, and Marco saw no signs of any more missiles being fired from behind them. The two took at least three minutes to calm themselves before Angie finally stopped the car, coincidentally right at the start of town, with an abandoned building only ten feet away.

"..."

"..."

"...Are we safe?" She asked, gripping the wheels so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. "Do you think they're going to fire anything else at us?"

"N-no," Marco said, his hearing still only at half of what it used to be.. "No, no, we're safe. I'm sure they're not happy that we managed to get away, but I don't think they're going to risk coming after us. Someone else might spot them, and I'm sure that they want as little people to know about this as possible. It's why they kept firing even _after _we turned to leave. Because if this gets out…"

"It's going to." Angie gulped, before looking at the rear-view mirror again and frowning. "We're going to go to the Monster Temple right now. We have to tell Eclipsa and the Council about this. They have to tell the citizens to not leave the town. Everyone that's already left is…"

"Not coming back," Marco said. "I'm guessing that brings the death toll up by _at least _a few hundred. And that's only going to keep rising." He took a deep breath and shook his head. "Okay. Yeah. We have to go to Eclipsa. And...wait, no! We can't do that! More people could die in the time it takes for us to tell her and _then _for her to get the word out!"

"Then what do we-"

"Stay here," Marco suggested. "Turn the car so that it blocks off the road. This isn't the only exit in the town, but it is the main one. If anyone comes by, stop them and show them the windows and any other damage the car sustained from the explosions. That should be enough to convince them...and if it's not, then just tell them to turn around when a dust storm starts up. Because the way that thing started, I have a feeling it was somehow artificial."

"And what are you going to do?"

"Go to Eclipsa, of course," Marco replied. "I'll tell her everything that just happened. If our goal here is to try and save more people, then I think that this is the way to do it. The Monster Temple may be a good distance away from here, but I think I can make it maybe twenty minutes if I run. Once she gets the word out, or sends people to get the word out, I'll come back to tell you. And that...may be a couple of hours, so-"

"I'll stay here for as long as I need to," Angie said. "I'll just have to call your father and let him know what we're doing, though. Can't have him getting even _more _worried for us."

"Agreed," Marco said, before opening the car door and hopping out.

"Wait! Marco!" Angie said, realizing she had forgotten something important. "Your hands! They're still covered with glass! We have to get you to the hospital first! If those get infected, then…" Her voice trailed off, but her expression told Marco everything she was trying to say. "Please. Just get back in and I'll drive you there. It's already been several minutes. People may try to leave the town, but I'm not going to risk anything happening with you. Not again. So please-"

"Sorry, mom," Marco said, as he began to slowly pick out the shards of glass. "But some things are just more important. If Star wants me to lighten up and not spend all day in a single room...then I don't think getting immediate attention for these wounds is going to help that."

And with that, Marco ignited his mother and ran off like the village idiot, while Angie stared at him with her mouth gaped open. She then rolled down her window and started shouting things, desperately trying to convince him to stop.

"That's not what she meant!" She yelled. "And doing this will only force you to stay in a single room _longer _in the future!"

But by then, Marco had already disappeared, and Angie knew that it was futile to go after him. Whatever street she went down in trying to find him, odds were he had gone down the exact opposite one. So instead she sighed and leaned back in her chair, before whispering softly to herself.

"Oh, love can make people do the stupidest things…" She mumbled. "Please don't hurt yourself, Marco. I trust you enough to not do that...but please be careful."

Angie wasn't sure what saying this was supposed to accomplish, considering he wasn't anywhere near her, but it felt good to say anyway. Just as she was about to close her eyes, a sudden bright light shined directly into her vision, and she looked to her left to the that a car was approaching the edge of the town. A van, to be exact, with a family inside with several bags of luggage wired to the top. They stopped when they saw she was in the middle of the road, and she sighed again as she prepared to get out.

"Stay here and tell them what's going to happen if they keep going." She said to herself. "Okay."

"I guess we'll have to start somewhere."

**End chapter 19**

**A/N: This was a mostly uneventful chapter overall, but still a slightly important one. Janna was revealed to be sorta-not really in league with the Fire-god for a while (which only consisted of him asking her to be Bren's successor), and we got introduced to **_**another **_**divine being that had been mentioned before. Let's just say the two of them might come to blows eventually, and hopefully, it won't be in Earth's solar system.**

**And there is a barrier around the town. Explains why nobody had come in or out. Spreading a few lies about quarantining the town, a deadly flesh-eating necrosis...and voila! Nobody is going in, and anyone who tries to get out...well, you read what happens. This is going to be a difficult situation for Eclipsa and the rest to handle, but they may have a few tricks up their sleeve.**

**Until next time.**


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